Jan Nederveen Pieterse - Globalization and Hybridity Theory

Globalization and Hybridity Theory

The term 'hybridity' originates with agriculture but has recently become very significant to Cultural Studies. Originating from the Latin hybrida, a hybrid is simply anything that is mixed. Key thinkers in the development of Hybridity Theory (HT) include Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, and Paul Gilroy. For Nederveen Pieterse, the concept of hybridity serves as a hermeneutical tool for interpreting the cultural dimensions of globalization. While most assessments of globalization are confined to a narrow time frame (modernity), Nederveen Pieterse considers globalization in broader anthropological terms. In this sense, he argues that globalization “belongs to a deep dynamic in which shifting civilizational centers are but the front stage of history” with ongoing intercultural traffic forming the backdrop. While globalization is often dismissed as mere westernization, Nederveen Pieterse points out that from an evolutionary perspective, such analysis is historically shallow:

The evolutionary backdrop of our common origins in Africa confirms that humanity is a hybrid species. The species' subsequent “clustering” in different regions of the world has not precluded large-scale contact and population movements across and between continents (Gamble 1993). This mixed heritage is confirmed by the “cultures” identified by archaeologists which in Paleolithic and Neolithic times sprawl widely and do not coincide with the boundaries of much later times.