Indigenization

Indigenization is the act of making something more native; transformation of some service, idea, etc. to suit a local culture, especially through the use of more indigenous people in administration, employment, etc. The term is primarily used by anthropologists to describe what happens when locals take something from the outside and make it their own (e.g. Africanization, Americanization). In world politics, indigenization is the process in which non-Western cultures redefine their native land for better use in agriculture and mass marketing. Due to imperialism and the impetus to modernize, many countries and cultures invoked Western values and ideals of liberalism, democracy and independence in the past. But now, along with experiencing their own share of cultural confidence, they desire to revert to their traditional cultures and values. However, the word indigenization is also used in almost the opposite sense, it means: to increase local participation in or ownership of, to indigenize foreign-owned companies, or to adapt (beliefs, customs, etc.) to local ways. The word indigenization first appeared in a paper about studies conducted in India about Christian missionaries. The word was used to describe the process of making Churches indigenous in southern India. From there, it spread to The Economist where it was used to describe managerial positions and to a book by John Spencer, named English Language in West Africa, where it was used to describe the adoption of English. Indigenization is often used to describe the adoption of colonial culture in Africa because of the effects of colonialism by Europe in the 19th and early 20th century. Throughout history, the process of making something indigenous has taken different forms. Other words that describe similar processes of making something local are Africanization, Localization, Glocalization, and Americanization. However, these terms describe a specific case of the process of making something indigenous. These terms may be rejected in favor of the more general term of indigenization because the others may have too narrow of a scope. For example, Christianization was a form of indigenization by converting areas and groups to follow Christianity. In this context, indigenization is used to refer to how a language is adopted in a certain area such as French in Africa. The term is used to describe the process of conveying a certain region’s culture and concepts in terms of the language that is being introduced. A common case where a language needed to be indigenized was in Africa where the ex-colonizer's language required some references to African religion and culture, even though in the original language there was no vocabulary for this. As this process is being carried out, there is usually a metalanguage created that is some combination of the original language and the introduced language. This language shares cultural aspects from both cultures, making it distinct and usually done in order to understand the foreign language in the context of the local region. Sometimes the term indigenization is preferred over other terms such as Africanization because it carries no negative connotations and does not imply any underlying meaning. Indigenization is seen as the process of changing someone to a person of more corroboration towards their surroundings. A large part of that process is the economy of said surroundings. Indigenization has played an important part in the economic roles of society. Thanks to The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, black people were offered a more distinguished position in the economy, with foreigners having to give up 51% of their business to black people.China’s Open Door Policy is seen as a big step of indigenization for their economy, as it is opening its doors to the western world. This allowed different cultures to experience one another and opened up China’s businesses to the western world as well, which set China forth in a sort of economic reform.