There Goes the Neighborhood

Today, we came across people from a distant land. They have skin the hue of clouds and speak a language that is clearly from far away. It is important that we carry honor and show hospitality because we never know what the future may bring. They seem very powerful, as they have many advanced weapons and boats. In a sense, they appear to be Godlike. Hopefully, the Europeans will recognize our kindness, and we might be able to establish a trading system. If we can maintain some of their weaponry, we might be able to defeat our enemy tribes in wars for years to come. Hopefully, they will also aid us in building our civilization and vice versa. Sure, it is possible that these odd people may have ill intentions, but that might be a risk that we, as a civilization, may have to take: by killing them, we could pass up multiple possibilities that could help us progress in the future.

———A few years later———

Here is a tip for the next people that come across Europeans: fight them or run. Accepting these monsters into our community was possibly the biggest mistake we have ever made in our tribe’s history. We have lost many of our tribe due to an epidemic, 36 in the last year and almost a quarter of that in the last two months. We have to take initiative and assume that it has something to do with the Europeans. Life was fine until they came. They were friendly for the first month or so, but they quickly started to disrespect nature and our culture despite our complaints. They have completely taken over our lives, even forcing us to convert to Christianity! Even worse, they treat us as if we are inferior servants. There is no point in revolting, as they are too powerful and authoritative. Bringing them in was not the best idea. Perhaps we should have tried to kill them when we had the chance.

Centuries ago, Native Americans were experiencing many of the negative aspects of cultural diffusion. A modern example of an unfortunate clash of cultural diffusion is the ISIS, or Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, conflict in the Middle East. One of ISIS’s main missions is to destroy the Iraqi government. This jihadist militant group is massacring mass numbers of people at once just because of clashing political views.