Ever heard that popular saying out there that goes something like this: “Kiss French, Dress Italian, Drive German”? Well that’s the first thing I thought when I say the word Hybridity. Why? I am not sure, all I know is that for me people have always try to adopt things from other places…. the grass will always be greener in the other side, no?

According to Canclini’s text – I think – Hybridity is like the globalization of culture. The terms attempts to capture the complexity of culture in today’s society. Going back a couple of weeks, when we were talking about the Folk Culture, we were discussing the authenticity of the stories. If simply taking the stories out of their context made them not authentic, well in today’s society it would be very hard to find authentic indigenous culture. Cancilini seems to take into account the massive process of globalization that the world has gone under in the past two to three decades, and I mean the guy wrote this in the mid-90’s. It would be interesting to see his view today with the massification of the internet!

Furthermore, the means of production around the world are all scattered all over the place. I mean, one good example for me are both the production lines of Airbus and Boeing… the go trough so much trouble to get the best components from so many different areas of the world… and the interaction that people have trough trade must have an impact both cultures. Now, this process is true for car manufactures, electronics, etc, etc, etc.  But not all global interaction takes place at a corporation scale! I dont know if you guys remember, but back in the day MSN had (maybe still have) random chat rooms… where you would go and kill a couple of hours… well sometimes you would be talking with a person from the other side of the world – not that i would recommend you doing that nowadays… its just creepy -. Also, in the same way we have sites like facebook, in which people from all over the world are ‘learning’ to interact in the cyber world the way the Americans design the site.

To finish this off, when I think of Hybridity I do think of your car, your computer, and your cothes. But I also think of the inevitable influence that having a bunch of ‘non-Canadian- food restaurants within minutes on a bus ride. So, is there any more authentic culuture anywhere? Thats for you to decide.