Endangered Cultures and Languages

Indigenous Kogui Tribe, Santa Marta, Colombia

(taken from: http://stefanquast.blogspot.com/2010/05/conferencia-banos-secos-javier-leal.html)

Good morning!

Since we have been talking a good deal the past two weeks about culture and what the term "culture" entails, I want you guys to think about the impact of disappearing cultures.

I want you to watch the following two TED videos:

Wade Davis: Dreams from Endangered Cultures

Phil Borges: On Endangered Cultures

and then read these news articles:

The Death of Language

Unesco Identifies Endangered Cultural Traditions

After you have watched the two videos and read the new articles, take a few minutes to reflect on what consequences disappearing cultures and their languages could have on society as a whole.

Once you have processed the information from the videos and the news articles, I want you to write an entry in your blog discussing the following:

Do you think it is important to try and protect these endangered and dying cultures and languages? Why or why not? What kind of contribution to different cutlures make to society as a whole? Is it vital to have cultural diversity or should we eventually coalesce to all be part of the same global culture, speaking one language?

In your blog entry, you shoule make direct reference to information from the videos & the news article.When making direct reference keep in mind these quotation rules from Purdue University: Quotation Rules.

Be sure not to plagiarize as you reflect... 

Happy blogging.

Tagaeri Indigenous Group, Ecuador

(taken from: http://blog.espol.edu.ec/cysuzamb/2010/09/12/88/)