Meanings
plural culturicides · alternative culturacide · alternative culturcide · alternative culturecide · alternative culturocide
- uncountableThe systematic destruction of a culture, particularly one unique to a specific ethnicity, or a political, religious, or social group.
If culturicide is to be prevented, certain means must be employed.
1969, New Physician, volume 18, Reston, Va.: American Medical Student Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6175 more examples
In effect, the textbooks commit what we term culturecide: the destruction of a culture, either by physical force or through symbolic means. The textbooks contribute to such destruction by distorting and omitting information […]
1974, George Dearborn Spindler, editor, Education and Cultural Process: Toward an Anthropology of Education, New York, N.Y.; London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page 529When culture-groups, in majority or minority, in national or political systems, attempt to eliminate the social practices of other culture-groups over which they have power, there is cultural domination and hypothesized Culturicide. Culturicide examples include Germans stamping out Hebrew language of Jews in the 1930s, Spanish outlawing Aztec and Maya codexes in 16th century Central America, Chinese establishing provincial restrictions of Mandarin in various dynasties, and the United States suppressing native languages of our indigenous "Indian" nations for over one hundred years.
1998, James V. Fenelon, “Culturicide Processes over Native Nations”, in Culturicide, Resistance, and Survival of the Lakota (“Sioux Nation”) (Native Americans: Interdisciplinary Perspectives), New York, N.Y.; London: Garland Publishing, →ISBN, pages 36–37Though culturecide is in and of itself not genocide, it does threaten the existence of a group if individual actions assume a quantitative mass whose collective impact can result in the demise of a group.
1998, David O. Friedrichs, editor, State Crime (International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Penology), volumes I (Defining, Delineating, and Explaining State Crime), Aldershot, Hampshire: Dartmouth, →ISBN, page 384In contrast, culturicide is an attempt to kill a culture, whether or not its members survive and whether or not they retain a separate identity […]
2003, Wilma A. Dunaway, editor, Emerging Issues in the 21st Century World-system. Volume I: Crises and Resistance in the 21st Century World-system (Contributions in Economics and Economic History; 230 [Studies in the Political Economy of the World-system]), volume I, Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishing, →ISBN, page 182Culturecide, referred to also as cultural genocide or deculturation, signifies processes that have usually been purposely introduced and that result in the decline or demise of a culture, without necessarily resulting in the physical destruction of its bearers.
2004, Stuart Stein, “Culturecide”, in Ellis Cashmore, editor, Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN - countableAn instance of such destruction.
Our mission is not only to stop the "culturecides" initiated by us, but also to recognize the treasures of experience, wisdom, and subtlety in the cultures we are annihilating.
2003, Edgar Morin, “European Civilization: Properties and Challenges”, in Mehdi Mozaffari, editor, Globalization and Civilizations, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1451 more example
Now, the teacher needs to place these historical situations into broader social contexts. Therefore, I provide a chart of some historical genocides and culturicides as an example, allowing instructors to also model how just because there is a genocide or culturicide, there are other modes of domination and adaptation going on as well.
2006, Ismael Abu-Saad, Duane Champagne, editors, Indigenous Education and Empowerment: International Perspectives, Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, →ISBN, page 68
Origin
Cite this entry
culturicide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/culturicide
“culturicide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/culturicide. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “culturicide,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/culturicide.
Source: culturicide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.