1. By Michael Alan Park, Ph.D. Central Connecticut State University
McGraw-Hill

2. Culture Change: Theories and Processes
Chapter 13
Culture Change: Theories and Processes

3. As You Read, Consider:
What is the difference between discovery and invention, and why is it important to consider both to gain a basic understanding of culture change?
How does diffusion play a central role in culture change? What are two examples?
What is meant by acculturation? How was Islamic Spain affected by acculturation?
Can acculturation be voluntary? What is an example?
Is it possible for an invention to diffuse from another culture? What is an example?
How was cultural evolution used to explain cultural diversity? Who were some of its nineteenth century advocates?
What is meant by historical particularism? How does it differ from diffusionism?

4. Discovery and Invention
Discovery and invention are at the base of all culture change. Discovery is the realization and understanding of some set of relationships. Invention refers to the creation of artifacts whether concrete (tools) or abstract (institutions). These put the discovery into to use Discovery is knowledge: Invention is application.
Discoveries do not always lead to all obvious inventions. Electric automobiles are an example. They work well but haven’t been completely accepted. Hybrid cars (gasoline and electric) have become an acceptable alternative.
Discoveries may not be accepted because they conflict with some aspect of the cultural system. Copernicus’ discovery that the earth was not the center of the universe was a violation of mainstream religious interpretations of the Bible.
It is important to understand that once adopted, a new discovery and its initial applications become part of a cultural system and bring about changes with the system. The invention of farming techniques and domestication of the horse are examples.

5. Diffusion
Each society can only discover and invent so much. The second basic process of culture change is diffusion, the giving and taking of culture in the form of discoveries and artifacts among different societies. Any given society’s cultural inventory is thought to consist of 90% diffused discoveries and artifacts. Heavy reliance on borrowing stimulates change. Societies isolated from outside contact change slowly.
Once borrowed, an item is modified and adapted to the borrowing culture and becomes part of the cultural system. Ralph Linton’s famous 1937 article, “One Hundred Percent American” makes reference to this.
Cultural ideas and technologies are not always borrowed intact, and not everything that could be borrowed is borrowed. The Japanese borrowed a great deal from the Chinese, but not the custom of binding women’s feet due to their cultural abhorrence of body mutilation. American jeans are accepted worldwide, but only certain styles due to differences in modesty standards.
Borrowed items are usually modified to fit the receiving society’s cultural system. American fast food restaurants quickly adopted serving wine in France. English missionaries introduced cricket to the Trobriand Islanders. But they made it their own with rule changes and redesigned equipment as a substitute of outlawed intervillage warfare.
Adoption of borrowed items is often strikingly seen in religion. People do not give up religious beliefs easily, and new beliefs are often incorporated into existing ones. This is called syncretism. Haitian voodoo is borrowed from West Africa cultural traditions and is heavily influenced by Catholicism.

6. Acculturation and Revolution
Acculturation and revolution are two other processes of culture change that are in a way extreme forms of invention and diffusion.
Acculturation is rapid diffusion under the influence of a dominant society that occur voluntarily or by force. Native Americans were quickly acculturated into the European-based society of the colonial powers and later by the United States.
Slaves have been acculturated into the societies of their masters throughout history. Those conquered by was were also forced to take on some or all aspects of the cultures of their conquerors. This occurred when Christians conquered Islamic Spain.
Cargo cults are yet another example. South Pacific societies from New Guinea to Fiji were in brief contact with industrialized technologies during World War II and liked what they saw.
They wanted to incorporate this technology (cargo) into their cultural system. After the war, they adopted many Western cultural trappings—language, dress, and military behavior worshipping military items (dog tags and helmets) as sacred objects. They created gods to pray for their return.

7. Acculturation and Revolution
Revolution is another process of culture change. It is usually thought of in the context of violent overthrow of an existing government like the Russian Revolution.
A revolution can also refer to radical change in other aspects of society. Scientific revolutions (Copernicus, Darwin, and Einstein) radically and rapidly changed the way people thought. Some are technological revolutions (like the invention of the microchip).
Revolutions in the sense of culture change be thought of as rapid invention—new ideas and applications from within or those borrowed from outside that thoroughly alter society.
Revolutions can involve strong cultural statements by portions of society and quickly affect and alter society as a whole. The Protestant Reformation and the 1960’s are examples.
These processes are not independent and separate. They can work together in interaction and the stimulus for an invention can diffuse for another culture like the French Revolution and its influence on the American Revolution. This is called stimulus diffusion.

8. Definitions
Discovery: The realization and understanding of a set of relationships. An addition of knowledge.
Invention: The creation of new artifacts. The application of discovered knowledge.
Syncretism: The synthesis of existing religious beliefs and practices with new ones introduced from the outside,
Acculturation: Rapid diffusion of cultural items either by choice of the receiving society or by force from a more dominant society.
Revolution: Rapid and extensive culture change generated from within a society.

9. Theories of Cultural Evolution
Charles Darwin’s work was reasonably well-accepted as was the idea that humans had evolved from other creatures and that our evolution had taken place over millions of years.
Because of extensive exploration, Western knowledge included information about the vastly diverse cultural systems that existed among the world’s peoples. It became a logical extension to attempt to explain this cultural diversity in terms of the new evolutionary framework.
Edward B. Tylor ( ), a British anthropologist and Lewis Henry Morgan ( ), an American became associated with classical or unilineal evolutionism. This theory implied that all societies pass through similar evolutionary stages (“savagery,” “barbarism,” and “civilization”, as Morgan termed them). Each stage was associated with a particular technology or invention.

10. Theories of Cultural Evolution
The cultural evolutionism model has three problems: First, it requires that all societies independently invent similar technologies and innovations and undergo parallel evolution; Secondly, it established fairly simple and predetermined scheme into which data was forced; Thirdly, it assumed that the goal of cultural evolution was civilization, the stage reached by the society to which the theorists belonged.
Diffusionism addressed the problem of too much focus on independent invention. It was a popular school of thought in the early twentieth century, and oversimplified the process. The theory stated that cultural innovation arouse in only a few centers then spread throughout the world. Everything of a complex culture was invented in ancient Egypt.
Kulturkreise (“cultural circle”) was a less extreme form of diffusionism. It explains that “less advanced” societies failed to acquire cultural innovations of an expanding circle because they were pushed into remote geographical regions by more advanced populations.
Diffusionism is another predetermined scheme into which data is fit, rather than allowing the data to generate a model to be tested. Culture is too complex, and diffusionism fails to give enough credit to independent invention.

11. Theories of Cultural Evolution
Historical particularism is the American school associated with Franz Boas ( ). Boas attempted to overcome some objections to earlier models by rejecting the idea parallel development. His focus was on fieldwork and accumulation of firsthand data about societies and cultures. Boas also said that fieldwork should be: 1) holistic (examining all aspects of culture and their interrelationships); and 2) relativistic (understanding culture from within itself). Boas pioneered data collection, holism and relativism and made them important components of anthropology.
Boas implicitly rejected the possibility of any generalizations about culture and cultural evolution. Historical particularism stated that each culture has its own history and that cultural similarities were due to diffusion or similar responses to environmental circumstances. Diffusion made it nearly impossible to classify individual cultures. Specific cultural traits lists defined broad culture areas, rather than examining the boundaries between individual societies.

12. Theories of Cultural Evolution
Boas did advance the study of cultural evolutionism by finding a middle ground between the extremes (independent invention and diffusionism). He also proposed a relationship between culture and environment and rejected unilineal evolution. He also emphasized the importance of scientific data collection: filed research-holism-relativism.
Invention and diffusion are the ultimate driving forces behind culture change.

13. Definitions
Classical Evolutionism: A synonym for unilinear evolutionism.
Unilinear Evolutionism: An outdated concept of cultural evolution claiming that all societies pass through the same series of stages from savagery to civilization.
Diffusionism: An outdated concept of cultural evolution claiming that major cultural advances were made by one or a few societies and spread from there to all other societies.
Kulturkreise (“culture circle”): A school of cultural evolution originating in Germany. It proposed that a small number of early cultural traditions spread in ever-widening circles to encompass and influence other societies.
Historical Particularism: The American school of cultural evolution which rejected any general theory of culture change, and believed that each society could only be understood with reference to its particular history.

14. Questions for Further Thought
Fully-electric cars is an example of an invention that will not be widely adopted into this culture in the foreseeable future. Can you think of another example and explain why it won’t be accepted?
Ralph Linton’s 1937 article, “One Hundred Percent American,” discussed items invented elsewhere that were adopted into American society. Name some American cultural items or ideas that are now commonplace in other societies. How, if at all, have they been modified upon adoption by these societies?
Today dissemination of and access to information is easier and faster than before. Internet, , and digitizing of data are examples. What processes of culture change are involved here and how do you think they will affect future societies?
British writer James Burke predicted the revolution in electronic data and communication would allow people to work out of their homes and bring back the concept of the neighborhood. Is seems quite the opposite. Do you agree? Why or why not?