Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cultural Diffusion





The diffusion of culture often brings paradoxes into the society. The borrowed diffusion of Mcdonalds tends to be one of the outstanding contradictions in Qatar and the Islamic region. Therefore, the question is, will the Qatari society be able to absorb both dining norms and hold its heritage?


McDonalds within Qatar seems to be one of the major paradoxes in our society. McDonalds has affected the society and its norms of dining that we don’t even realise. In this case, Islamic culture is rooted in the Qatari society, which tends to pinpoint unity, ritual habits of dining and family-orientated occasions. Muslims have numerous outstanding rituals when dining. In refrence to Ahadiths, Muslims should avoid sitting at the table when possible, eat with the right hand as Satan uses the left, then lick fingers and plate after dinning. Then ask for forgiveness and drink within three gulps. Therefore, dinning within an Islamic society does not seem to be as simple as eating at the dinning table. On the other hand, none of these ritauls take place while eating at McDonalds. By eating in Mcdonalds, we do not practice the Islamic rituals, but adapt to the Americanized fastfood ways of eating. Additionally, the family orientation and unity may be lost when dining in Mcdonalds, as it is a shortcut to traditional ways of eating. As a result, McDonalds represents the western dominance over the MiddleEast and Islamic way of dinning.

To conclude, norms of Islamic dining within the society are eventually wearing away as the younger generation Americanizes the cultural dining norms. Therefore, the society may keep hold of the cultural familiarities, but they are going to change overtime.

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