Cultural Plurality In South America

The cultural plurality that exists within South America greatly shapes the continent, its peoples and the environment in which they live. Prior to European colonialism, South America belonged to the indigenous populations. Natives functioning within their own world, unbeknown to the vast array of societies that exist beyond their own realm. As the great powers of Europe began to expand beyond their hemisphere, reaching uncharted territories, the white voyagers eventually reached the lands of South America. Their arrival marked the downfall of the native dominion over the rich, fertile lands. This influx of Europeans: the Spanish, Portuguese, French, English; transformed the “primitive” land; deconstructing, obliterating the system the indigenous peoples had established. Endowed with the gift of education and technology, the Europeans were able to assert
South America has become a melting pot of Indigenous, African and European populations, each culture helping to shape the South American customs that exist today. European and African migration into the Americas created a culture with an assortment of traditions, beliefs, practices, foods; offering endless cultural variations within the region. The ingredients to which I refer are both cattle and pigs. Cattle, originating from the Mediterranean, was introduced into the South American atmosphere by the white settlers. Cattle, being just one of the many animals and plants the Europeans brought from “home”, represents the cultural diffusion caused by Colonialism. “The sources of ideas, innovations, ideologies that changed regions and realms. Those ideas and innovations spread far and wide through a set of processes under the rubric of cultural diffusion (de Blij & Muller, p. 345).” During the Colonial Era, the spread of European influence greatly shaped the increasingly globalized nature of the world, South America