Empire Builders, Culture Makers, and Culture Imprinters
The chapter starts with a survey of the distribution of the main language groups that account for about two-thirds of the world's population—Chinese, Indian, Russian, Anglo-Saxon, Latin European, Latin American, and Arab. These divisions coincide with the so-called “popular” culture (food, dress, architecture, religion) and it is surveyed in this chapter how these cultures attained their present locations and dimensions. It is observed that the brilliance of the people's “high” culture is not a major factor in imprinting a culture's language and popular culture to other people. Rather, it is the capacity for empire building (a good example is North and South America and Russia) and the presence of a proselytizing religion (like Christianity and Islam) that is more significant for providing the framework for imprinting the language and popular culture on indigenous populations and immigrants.
Keywords: language, religion, empire building, imprinting, popular culture, language groups
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