Does culture change much over time?

[mad_scientist]

In many cultures around the world (e.g. Japanese) it is considered rude to stare at people for prolonged periods of time (e.g. longer than a second). In the western world however, many people place higher emphasis on eye contact and through showing their attention to the other person one is speaking to, while over east people are more evasive with their eye contact. My question, is when did this western culture of staring develop? Do we have any ideas and does culture change much in the course of a decade, century, millennia etc.?

 

Will our cultural habits change to a noticeable degree in a few centuries (e.g. adoption of the japanese style of bowing to greet one another instead of shaking hands to avoid unnecessary physical contact with people of the opposite gender and accommodate a growing muslim population which deems such actions as immoral/wrong)? Also, shaking hands is very unhygienic and according to a recent study 62% of men and 40% of women admitted not washing their hands after going to the toilet (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2971931/Do-wash-hands-going-loo-62-men-40-women-admit-don-t-bother.html).

 

Through colonial influences, many indians living in the west have increasingly felt uncomfortable in "being themselves" in public and through being subjugated by the west through cultural influences.Today an increasing number of indians are choosing not to eat food with their hands but with utensils. In response, many indians have forced themselves to eat food with utensils instead of only with their hands and maintain this culture when going back abroad to india due to fear of judgement/shame from the white man/woman while living in the west.

 

China used to be a collective society which was not very individualistic back in the good old days but is increasingly becoming westernised through britney spears, pepsi, mcdonalds (https://hbr.org/2016/03/charting-chinas-rising-individualism-in-names-songs-and-attitudes) etc. Today, obesity is a growing amongst the chinese (https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/09/obesity-fat-problem-chinese-cities) as people realize the importance of a sedentary lifestyle for increased economic growth. As a result the chinese are becoming fatter and more individualistic.

 

australian aborigines were once a fit group of people who hunted and foraged their food. today many aboriginal australian youths take drugs, alcohol and are addicted to gambling. Language extinction is a major issue facing the australian aboriginal community now due to the black people's neglect of their own culture/language. Which language do you think will become a more popular lingua franca in any region of the world?

 

How has western culture changed throughout the ages and how do you think the world will change in the years to come?

Edited June 13, 2017 by mad_scientist