Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Owing to globalization, some components of cultures have entered into other societies and been incorporated into host culture. These components could influence the host culture or conversely be influenced by the host culture. This study considers and scrutinizes a cultural component which has emerged in Iranian cultural “rites”. In recent years, the holding of some unfamiliar rituals has been observed in Iran. These phenomena are not rooted from Iranian culture and instead stem from globalization. Thus, this study investigates the relationship between globalization and youth cognition of this segment of alien cultures in order to answer the question of whether this cognition only encompasses the material manifestations of alien cultures or whether there a deeper understanding of their nature? And how do new cultural components alter as a result of interacting with typical Iranian culture? The theoretical foundations of this research are based on Ronald Robertson’s Glocalization and Peter L. Berger’s The Cultural Dynamics of Globalization. The research methodology uses survey data. This research assumes that in the process of globalization, individuals have easy access to a wide variety of information and have become familiar with some parts of alien culture at the surface level; however, they are probably not aware of their intrinsic contents. On the other hand, alien cultural components, in the process of interacting with the prevailing culture of Iranian society, have been altered and so Iranians, while absorbing these cultural elements, have also given them new form and meaning with regard to their own culture.