The Acculturation Concept And Tourists’ Effect On Cultural Identity
According to Navas et al (2005), the acculturation concept started to be used by American social anthropologists towards the end of the 19th century. Its wide application to the study of social changes and cultural contacts between different communities (for example, peasants, native communities, etc. ) prompted the magazine American Anthropologist to publish a memorandum on the study of acculturation in the 1930s. One of the earliest definitions of acculturation as a process describe acculturation as ‘those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups’. Redfield et al (1936) became the point of reference for later works in the 20th century and was incorporated in the UNESCO dictionary thesaurus as the official definition of acculturation. In the mid 1970s, the Canadian psychologist Berry and his colleagues began to take an interest in the acculturation phenomenon and, after much research in the field of trans-cultural psychology, formulated an Acculturation Model.
Acculturation has become a well-recognized and important area of study. Broadly, as applied to individuals, acculturation refers to changes that take place as a result of contact with culturally dissimilar people, groups, and social influences. Although these changes can take place as a result of almost any intercultural contact (for example, globalization; and for this study, tourism), acculturation is most often studied in individuals living in countries or regions other than where they were born (that is, among immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and sojourners like international students, seasonal farm workers). Acculturation research generally focuses on immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, who are assumed to be permanently settled in their new homeland.
The acculturation theory directly addressed the notion of change in cultural attitudes, behaviors, and cultural identity as a consequence of cultural contact. Acculturation theory explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results, following meeting between cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes in culture, customs, and social institutions. Noticeable group level effects of acculturation often include changes in food, clothing, and language.
The concept of acculturation requires rethink because tourists do not settled permanently in Badagry. Though a particular tourist may not spend more than few hours or days in Badagry, they are being replaced by another set of tourists on a continuous basis. Thus, the indigenous people of Badagry are exposed to foreign culture on a continuous basis in a way comparable to the case of permanent immigrants. Another aspect of rethink is the direction of acculturation. While the original application of acculturation emphasizes how entrants adopt the culture of host, this study examines the issue in reverse by emphasizing the extent to which Badagry indigene (the host) adopt the culture of the tourists. This interpretation is still within the original conceptualization of acculturation in the 1930s which implied that cultural changes can either be observed with the entrants or the hosts or both.
