The Impact of Western Culture on the Lifestyle of Students of Federal University of Kashere
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study:
Here two types of objectives have been identified for the study:
Broad Objectives-
The broad objective of my study is to identify the impacts of ‘Western Culture’ on students of University of Kashere, Gombe state, Nigeria.
Specific Objectives-
- To knowhow western culture plays role to change the pattern of behavior of young people.
- To explore the types of the major changes that have been taken place among the students caused by the effects of western culture.
- To identify the attitude of students toward the traditional culture and western culture.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
What is meant by western culture:
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and Australasia, and is not restricted to Western Europe.
Western culture stems from two sources: the Classical Period of the Greco-Roman era and the impact of Christianity. The artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and traditions; the heritages of especially Latin, Celtic, Germanic, and Hellenic ethnic or linguistic groups; as well as a tradition of rationalism in various spheres of life, developed by Hellenistic philosophy, Scholasticism, Humanisms, the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment; and including, in political thought, widespread rational arguments in favour of free thought, human rights, equality and democracy.
Terminology:
The Greeks contrasted themselves to their Eastern neighbors, such as the Trojans in Iliad, setting an example for later contrasts between east and west. In the middle Ages, Islam in the Near East provided a contrast to the West though it had been Hellenized since the time of Alexander the Great, and had been ruled by Rome and Constantinople and part of “Christendom”.
In the later 20th to early 21st century, with the advent of increasing globalism, it has become more difficult to determine which individuals fit into which category, and the East–West contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic and arbitrary.
Globalism has, especially since the end of the cold war, spread western ideas so widely that almost all modern countries or cultures are to some extent influenced by aspects of western culture which they have absorbed. Recent stereotyped Western views of “the West” have been labeled Occidentalism, paralleling Orientalism, the term for the 19th century stereotyped views of “the East”.
Geographically, “The West” today would normally be said to include Western Europe as well as certain territories belonging to the Anglosphere, the Hispanidad, the Lusofonia or the Francophonie.
Cultural forms:
Some cultural and artistic modalities are characteristically Western in origin and form. While dance, music, visual art, story-telling, and architecture are human universals, they are expressed in the West in certain characteristic ways.
In Western dance, music, plays and other arts, the performers are only very infrequently masked. There are essentially no taboos against depicting God, or other religious figures, in a representational fashion. (Tomlinson, 2003)
Music:
The symphony, concerto, sonata, opera and oratorio have their origins in Italy. Many important musical instruments used by cultures all over the world were also developed in the West; among them are the violin, piano, pipe organ, saxophone, trombone, clarinet, and the Theremin. The solo piano, symphony orchestra and the string quartet are also important performing musical forms.
Historically, the main forms of western music are European folk, choral, classical, country, rock and roll, hip-hop, and electronica.
Many forms of popular music have been derived from African-Americans, and their innovations of jazz and blues serve as the basis from which much of modern popular music was derived. Folklore and music during 20th and 19th centuries, initially by themselves, but later played and further developed together with White & Black Americans, British people, and Westerners in general. These include jazz, blues and rock music (that in a wider sense include the rock and roll and heavy metal genres), rhythm and blues, funk, Hip-Hop, techno as well as theska and reggae genres from Jamaica. Several other related or derived styles were developed and introduced by western pop culture such as pop, metal and dance music.
Other well-known Western musical genres include the music played by Mexican mariachis, the Argentine and Uruguayan tango, North American jazz and Brazilianbossa nova. (Tomlinson, 2003).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The study is a research paper based on explanatory or descriptive process. The study has been conducted through the use of survey design. Data has been collected through incorporating relevant items in the questionnaire and analyzed and interpreted using descriptive techniques. This paper is based on quantitative data.
Population of the study
The study focused on students in Federal University of Kashere, Gombe state.
Sampling procedure
Data has been collected from the field by using simple random sampling technique. It is a probability method of sampling.
Sample size determination
Multistage random sampling technique have been incorporated here:
Stage-1: 4 LGAs have been selected randomly from Gombe state.
Stage-2: 8 areas or localities (2 from each LGA) have been selected randomly.
Stage-3:13 people have been selected randomly from each areas and the total sample will be 105. .
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT PRESENTATION
Personal factors of respondents:
In this point some personal factors or information about respondents are discussed.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Recommendations
As most of the findings are discussed yet, it can be said that impact of western culture is a part of modernization. But it can be considerered as a problem also in our country’s perspective. Because many of young people of our country are addicted day by day to the negative sides of western culture. Below, there given some recommendations:
There should be vast opportunities for young people to know and learn more about our traditional culture.
They should be made aware what is traditional culture and what western culture is.
There should be awareness program through various media like print and electronic media for students concerning them about bad sides of western culture and significance of our traditional culture.
Motivation program should be held encouraging for preserving of our traditional culture.
There should be government’s steps to prevent elements such as pornography, drugs, and hard drinks from reaching to students.
Moral value of students should be increase through motivation programs.
Exercise of obtaining religious rules-regulations should be increased among students.
Family members especially parents should be aware of what their children doing in their room, which type of company he/she keeping and where he/she goes etc.
Proper knowledge should be spread among students about the negative sides of western culture, the significance of our traditional culture and not to adopt western culture. It is the responsibility of educational institutions, teachers and parents mostly.
Patriotism should be spread among students.
Nigerian festivals should be observed with more importance nationally.
Nigerian entertainments such as movies, music etc. should be more advanced and up-to-date so that young people will attract to it.
Easy access of western culture into our country should be more restricted by government.
Lacking and needs of young people should try to fulfill by government, society and family.
Conclusion
Eventually, it can be concluded that, this research has found a lot of significant issues that is Western culture is not a curse to our society but it can bring a lot of negative effects. We must understand that the students are the future image of our country. So, it is necessary to enlighten them about our own cultural values which will make our nation proud.
Nowadays the production and consumption of cultural goods and services has become commodities, along with the essentials of social life (marriage and family life, religion work and leisure). What once was an element of the way of life becomes a product, rather than something unique men had made to suit their own needs and circumstances. In urban Nigeria, technology of multi-channels TV began in 1991 and hence satellite broadcasting has been delivering ‘lots of channels to viewers’. Cultural domination by electronic media within the society thus has eventually become a major concern of sociological inquiry. The present study is one of such effort to look at how the urban people, mostly youth has accepted and responded to their access to Western culture.
In Nigerian perspective, since it is the one of very few and one way concentration on the impact of western culture, it is precise that this thesis contains the groundwork of further research, which may find useful tools considering the probable findings in the long run. No study has been done at before. However, for doing this research best analysis was used to make the research as full proof but due to short sample, it cannot be recommend as full proof. That’s why; it is recommend for further modification as it is a phrase valid that research is a never ending process.
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