Editing Transculturation (section)

==Obstacles to ethnoconvergence==

The obstacle to ethnoconvergence is [[ethnocentrism]], which is the view that one's culture is of greater importance than another's. Ethnocentrism often takes different forms, as it is a highly personal bias, and manifests itself in countless aspects of culture. [[Religion]], or belief, is the prime ethnocentric divider. Second is [[convention (norm)|custom]], which often overlaps with religion. With the adherence to each distinct component within ones own culture, comes the repulsion of the other. In most regions, ethnic divides are binary, meaning only two distinct cultures are present, each seeing the other as foreign. Many, however make the point that the binary example is the exception, and the norm is far more dynamic.

Ethnicity can be divided into two distinct areas, as they relate to ethnoconvergence:  Utilitarian traits, and traditional customs.

Religion, on the other hand, is a highly personal and attached part of culture. However, religion does not neatly correspond with ethnic identity. In many [[Multicultural|cosmopolitan]] societies, religion is everything—social, utilitarian, intellectual, political—from the point of view of people of immersed cultures; the very concept of ethnicity and its distinctions is incongruous to their immersed concepts.

In many societies, such as in those in Europe, languages are considered a significant component of ethnic values. This does not mean that most Europeans reject learning other languages. Quite the contrary, Europeans are often polyglots, and may label other individuals by their ethnicities; practical means of distinguishing cultures may resemble tendencies similar to [[ethnocentrism]].

However, the political and cultural significance of regional or national languages are retained because these polyglots conform to the linguistic norms of the place they visit—doing "as the Romans do". Thus, conforming to the "ethnic integrity" of the region.

It has even become a cliché that "to learn a new language is to adopt a new soul". There are many other examples of the essential significance of language. In pre-[[Russia]]n [[Siberia]], [[Siberian Tatars|Tatar-Mongol]] colonists in the [[Taiga]] often recognized indigenous speakers of [[Turkic languages]] as their "own people" and non-Turkic groups as "foreigners", despite these indigenous groups having a similar level of material culture, and sharing much of a primitive culture with tribes foreign to the Muslim-Buddhist Tatar-Mongols.