Cultural Diffusion

Cultural diffusion is the term used to describe the spread of cultural ideas from the core culture regions and the culture hearth. There are three methods of cultural diffusion. The first is called direct diffusion and occurs when two distinct cultures are very close together. Over time, direct contact between the two leads to an intermingling of the cultures. Historically this occurred through trade, intermarriage, and sometimes warfare because members of the various cultures interacted with each other for long periods. Forced diffusion or expansion diffusion is the second method of cultural diffusion and takes place when one culture defeats another and forces its beliefs and customs onto the conquered people. An example of this would be when the Spanish took over lands in the Americas and later forced the original inhabitants to convert to Roman Catholicism in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The final form of cultural diffusion is indirect diffusion. This type of diffusion happens when cultural ideas are spread through a middleman or even another culture.