Culture Change

 


It is the conundrum of culture that it strives for EQUILIBRIUM, and yet as a living system of individuals joined together through core values, beliefs, ideas, practices and products it is ALWAYS CHANGING.


So, how do cultures change? Two Ways:


  • Diffusion (borrowing or transmission of a trait from one culture to another). 
    • can be through direct or indirect interaction
Factors upon which diffusion is contingent (in this order)

  • Need for change (desire or necessity for a product or practice in that culture)
  • Availability for change (raw materials and know-how or the ability to acquire the product or practice through trade)
  • Does not violate the WORLDVIEW of that culture
  • Independent Invention
    • primary innovation (chance discovery)
    • secondary innovation (build on chance discovery)
  • Acculturation (Forcible change-secondary learning of culture)
    • Change which is "forced" upon an individual or culture. Takes place in the liefetimeof an individual.
    • Results in the following if it persists:
      • blending of cultural traits -SYNCRETISM
      • Cultural attrition (decay)
      • Cultural death (actual - genocide, or virtual- culture is lost)
      • Revitalization Movements
        • Nativistic
        • Nonnativistic
One cannot predict accurately the rate or direction of change but there are factors that affect both of these features:
  • degree of cultural difference
  • intensity/frequency of contact
  • relative status (power) of those in contact
  • reciprocal versus nonreciprocal contact
  • nature of contact (hostile or friendly)
 DIRECTED CHANGE: Modernization (Westernization/Development)
the process of cultural and social-economic change whereby developing societies acquire some of the characteristics of  Western industrialized societies.
  • STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION: 
    • the division of single, holistic, traditional roles into specialized roles
    • can lead to fragmentation in a society
      • develop INTEGRATIVE MECHANISMS in order to counter fragmentation
        • trade unions
        • beaurocracies
        • legal codes
        • commin interest associations
  • ACCULTURATION
  • ASSIMILATION
    • ETHNICITY (secondary affiliation that remains when a group has been assimilated)
      • can be expressed in a number of ways
      • always a VOLUNTARY association (you have an ethnicity because you choose to express it)
        • food, traditions, naming, religious affiliation, common interest, etc.
Syncretic Religion in Brazil

Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans (arts)

Cricket The Trobriand Way

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