By The Waters Of Babylon: Cultural Change

In the text, “By The Waters Of Babylon,” by Stephen Benet, there was a great change in cultures. The cultures changed from over time in every society. Cultural change is best defined as the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society. This happens many times because of many different factors. Factors include cultural diffusion, inventions of technology, and geographical features in a society. In the story, John’s society was different than the one that came before it. This happened because the old ways were lost when the city was destroyed. In other words, culture changes over time because as time goes by, knowledge is either gained or lost. The first factor is cultural diffusion. Cultural diffusion causes a change in a society’s customs. When cultures come together, they adopt different customs. As people come together, they realize that some customs are better equipped for their society. The website states, “Another way culture can change is through contact with other cultures.” This demonstrates the way that acculturation works. As cultures come together, they tend to adopt what they think is better for their society. Also, another website states, “The contact between two societies will obviously change the …show more content…
New York City was destroyed and it caused many people to forget the old ways. The Great Burning destroyed most of the people that contained the knowledge. The poison that killed off the people caused them to forget the old ways. Culture changed because there was no knowledge to base their society off of. The story states, “It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned.” (Benet, pg9) This shows the destruction of the city, which was the reason knowledge was lost. Also, the story states, “I saw it happen, I saw the last of them die. It was darkness over the broken city and I wept.” (Benet, pg9) This demonstrates the aftermath of the city when the Great Burning