The internet allows for retention of information without the nuance and context of an elder. In this model the information itself becomes more important than the vessel carrying it, which is a distinct and Eurocentric/colonizing approach to retaining the culture. Does the hybridization of the culture damage its authenticity or importance?
Richard Handler’s opinions on the importance of authenticity:
The connections between Culture, Id and contemporary paradigm:
https://www.ashgate.com/pdf/SamplePages/Authenticity_in_Culture_Self_and_Society_Ch1.pdf
Is authenticity necessary in post modern culture? It depends on your previous understanding and how you process knowledge, because if McLuhan is right, the authenticity of the message and the allegory therein (moral is how we build understanding about connections between self and society) have a direct impact on how the information is received.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw
Cultural Hybridization, whether intentional or forced is a direct result of a Globalized population and the inherent neoliberal capitalist belief structure therein. It is both Eurocentric and Colonial in its inception and practice. The embedded Darwinian methodologies of letting the strong aspects of the culture define the culture totally speak both to the offensive and romanticized ideal of “The Other”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_other (Look at the Imperialism section)
The environmental debate and it’s connection to “The Other”
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~brullerj/env_politics-Brulle.pdf
Historically, not all cultures have approached hybridization from a negative point of view. Japan, India and China are three cultures that were forced into compliance and subsequent hybridization by Colonial powers but have since embraced it and flourished. The choice was not always theirs however. China and India were subjugated by Britain who controlled the Silver triangle through Hong Kong:
http://clairepetras.com/silvertriangle/
Japan have been forced by the Americans twice to open their culture for trading and the hybridization that occurs with it. First with their “Black Ships” 200 years after their first experiment with hybridization ended poorly with worries of foreign power (The Portuguese) meddling in their culture and politics (converting their Daimyo to Christian through Jesuit missionaries). The second was after World war two when their culture and people were effectively decimated by the war and the atomic explosions that they produced. Left without a choice, they embraced the new culture of unregulated neo-liberal capitalism and effectively hybridized their culture.
Black Ships
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ships
Tokyo Stock Exchange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Stock_Exchange (see the post war section)
In the end, cultural hybridization being defined as positive or negative is entirely dependent on the opinion of the Authenticity’s importance and necessity to the culture. Japan, China and India’s cultures were strong enough to maintain their authentic roots while incorporating mostly beneficial aspects of the new culture despite colonial adversity, but the First Nations situation is a little different especially with regards to Japan, India and China because neither country were ever weak enough to be invaded completely in the way that the Americas were.