Cultural syncretism: what it is and how it arises in societies

As is evident, there is a whole variety of different cultures in humanity. Many of them end up mixing with others.

In this article We will study one of the most important mechanisms by which this mechanism can occur, which is cultural syncretism.. We will analyze how this phenomenon is generated and we will also see an example that exactly reflects its implications.

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What is cultural syncretism?

When we speak of syncretism, and more specifically of cultural syncretism, we are essentially referring to a process of mixing cultures that can occur through hybridization or interbreeding between two or more of them. In other words, this phenomenon refers to the hodgepodge that can be experienced when two cultures meet, without one imposing itself on the other.

Therefore, thanks to cultural syncretism, two or more cultures can give rise to a new one, which results from the product of all those that have intervened, to give rise to a set of customs, values ​​and ways of acting and thinking that drink from various sources

. A new culture is being created thanks to the union of others that previously existed.

Cultural syncretism can affect all spheres of a society's culture. Historically it has happened and in fact it does. Different schools of thought of a certain science can influence each other or even merge and give rise to new ones. The same can happen in the field of religion, where some creeds collect passages from other doctrines and take them as their own.

Politics does not escape this mechanism either, and two ideologies can bring their positions closer together until they merge. in a new movement that did not exist previously with that level of complexity, since the result is taking elements from different sources, performing a hybridization of both.

If we focus on the etymology of cultural syncretism, we discover that the word syncretism comes from the Greek, being an expression of the philosopher Plutarch that made reference to the union of the Cretans to face an enemy common. The term was rescued centuries later by Erasmus of Rotterdam, giving it a similar meaning.

In this case, this scholar referred to syncretism as that which united people despite the fact that they maintained differences in their religious beliefs. Erasmus included this concept, among many others, in his work Adagia, a compendium of proverbs from ancient Greece and Rome, which brings together a good part of the most primitive knowledge of early Europe.

From then on, the term became more important, until in our era, it has adopted the meaning by which we know it today, relating it with the phenomenon of the mixture between cultures that produces their enrichment, by allowing the exchange of elements among all for a growth common.

Cultural syncretism versus competition

The mechanism of cultural syncretism, as we have already seen, supposes a mechanism that at the anthropological level allows the mixture between cultural groups and therefore a greater wealth of all of them. Conversely, we can find other processes in which not all the cultures involved benefit.

The clearest is that of intercultural competence. When two cultures compete with each other in this way, the one that is stronger, either because it belongs to a greater number of people, because that group will use force to impose itself, or for any other reason, this will prevail over the other, even making the defeated culture reach disappear.

We observe, therefore, a substantial difference, since in the case of cultural syncretism a peaceful coexistence of both cultural groups was facilitated under terms in which everyone derived some benefit from the relationship. However, under competition, the cultures involved will seek their supremacy in a clash that will leave a single winner.

Of course, in this struggle between cultures, the conflict can arise unilaterally, that is, by part of a cultural group that seeks to impose itself on others, who may not want to enter said conflict. Cultural syncretism represents another form of relationship between cultures, one in which both are mixed and somehow evolve, they are enriched by this hodgepodge.

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The meeting between two worlds

Throughout history there have been innumerable cases of cultural syncretism, more or less evident, but if we want to observe one of the more important examples, we could focus on the one that happened from the year 1492, which changed the world forever, or rather, the worlds.

Because that was the year in which three ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, with Columbus at the head of the expedition, to connect with one irremediably the destinies of Europe and the lands that would be known since then as America, in addition to the rest of the globe earth. The union and the mixture between cultures would be constant since then.

This is how some European and pre-Columbian cultures begin to exchange elements, to mix and, ultimately, to mix.. This process occurs with greater or lesser intensity depending on the different areas and for many years, until crystallize into new nations that enjoy a rich cultural background, generated by two sources so different.

It is evident that not all regions experienced such cultural syncretism, but others lived what previously described as cultural competence, one being the one that ended up imposing itself on the other until practically reducing it by full. This could be the case of the English colonization of North America, as opposed to the Spanish and Portuguese in the rest of the continent.

Of course, it is a complex subject in which there are different perspectives and that will depend a lot on the specific place where we put the magnifying glass and the specific circumstances that hit there. In any case, it serves to illustrate the properties and procedures that occur in cultural syncretism to achieve the mixture between cultures and lead to a result that did not previously exist.

Cultural syncretism and cultural appropriation

However, today there are critical voices towards cultural syncretism, as some sectors equate it to another phenomenon called cultural appropriation. This expression refers to the uptake by a certain culture of an element belonging to another group. This act is given a negative connotation, since it is considered that this element should only be used by the culture to which it belongs.

However, the processes of cultural syncretism, like many others at the anthropological level by the which cultures are born, develop, merge or disappear, are beyond these judgments of value. Cultures are not hermetic, but are exposed to this type of mechanisms that in one way or another give rise to their being modified or even mixed substantially with others.

This is the case of cultural syncretism. Those who criticize this phenomenon and give it the appearance of cultural appropriation do so because they consider that one of those cultures in some way is plundering the other, as if it were a form of cultural colonialism, and somehow benefiting from an element that did not belongs.

They also reproach that the importance of said element is distorted or even that its origin is forgotten, because the culture that has taken it makes it their own, and the cultural group to which it belonged does not have enough strength or voice to claim it. Another criticism is the use of these cultural components to establish a series of fashions based on the exotic of the ethnic.

As we said, the mechanisms of cultural change, such as syncretism, do not understand these value judgments and simply follow one another. None of the cultures that we can observe today in the world are pure, so to speak, but all of them, to a greater or lesser extent, are the product of an exchange, a miscegenation, and in other words, a cultural syncretism that has given rise to the cultural groups that we know today.

Therefore, although some sectors may criticize the fact that two or more cultures share elements, giving rise to new and more cultural groups. complex, the truth is that it is a phenomenon that is difficult to avoid or control, as it is one of the ways in which these elements change, as we have already mentioned. viewed.