How globalization enhanced abandoning some of the social and traditional behaviours in my society?
Over the first 15 years of my life, almost up till the beginning of the 2000s, I got used to seeing ladies in my village using "Taboon," a small traditional oven, like a mold made up of calcareous soil mixed up with hay. The process of making begins with converting the soil to mud by adding water and hay, and then, is dehydrated under sun rays and shaped as a circular mold. The next step is burying it under the ash that comes out of burning piles of animals' dung.
To keep the warmth up, a metal cover put over it, and small pieces of stones thrown inside to put the fermented dough on directly to become loaves ready for eating.
A Palestinian lady bakes bread in the Taboon. |
This traditional oven was remarkably used in the 20th century and even until the beginning of the 2000s in Palestine. I remember that my mother had one 12 years ago, but decided to demolish it as the time was indicative that it's no longer suitable to keep working on although was still valid for baking bread, roasting chicken, and cooking food. Moreover, it was an energy-saving tool used up the natural resource, like animals' dung and olives remnants, taken after grinding it to extract oil, then being piled up to burn it and heat Taboon up.
Upon the appearance of the technological era in my society, particularly, social media, ladies in my village began gradually to deviate from using traditional ovens to baking bread, thinking that needless to be preoccupied with collecting animals' dung, mostly, that of the cattle, and dehydrate it under sun rays, then throw it off on this ground "Taboon" and burn it, which found as a burdening and time-consuming process. Not to mention, this process keeps the clothes somewhat stench and full of dust, as the ash keeps coming out of.
Therefore, they resorted to modern electric ovens when they had seen people in other societies using them, which facilitated the whole process.
A Palestinian lady takes off a loaf from the Taboon. |
The same thing with donkeys, I used to see a lot of donkeys were used by farmers to plough their fields and load different portable stuff that farmers needed to cultivate these fields, as well.
Ridding donkeys became an icon reflecting the peasantry life in my society; how farmers are very linked with their fields in a harmonious way, which can also be described as bonds of loyalty to the land.
In the present day, donkeys are no longer used, farmers use modern tractors and cars to access their field quickly. By this, they could load their vehicles with heavier stuff and equipment needed to work in their fields, as donkeys couldn't carry heavy stuff previously. Therefore, I barely see donkeys, and the last time saw a donkey was three years ago in comparison to the past were passing by my house every day.
Social change expanded to the social relationships, for instance, I used to see people from the same neighborhood, gather together at a certain place to begin narrating different stories; as well as, they were cooking together and helping each other with many tasks. This was turned upside down, those people no longer meet with each other, especially individuals who belong to this current generation, you find them busy with new matters, like smart electronic devices, which led them to keep off resorting to libraries and narrate them on a roundtable.
A Palestinian old man plough his field using his donkey |
People nowadays are grappling with a new globalized lifestyle that has overstepped the usual standards; they are no longer rely on natural resources of food, ladies find it easier to buy already canned and cooked food that just requires a few minutes to prepare, unlike before, people significantly preferred to get their food mostly from the fields, they were not consuming KFC, Hotdog, and many more of myriad of artificial nutritious products.
By these transformative forms taking place, I would say that my society is remarkably globalized by consuming what's coming in from other societies. Seriously though, people, particularly the current generation, found it more comfortable to give up the traditional standards that are gradually being melted away into the new globalizing mantle, and cope with the modern standards.
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