1. What causes cultural change? Why has the rate of change increased?
The culture of always being in contact; except with the people you’re physically next to.

2. Overview of Cultural Change
All Cultures Change
Change generally occurs slowly
All cultures both embrace and resist change
What does it mean to both embrace and resist change?

3. Cultural Change KFC in Beijing, China
Most cultures are conservative and resist change
Some cultures seem to embrace change – China is becoming more western
Others, such as France actively work to resist change
The fact is, all cultures are both embracing and resisting change at the same time
KFC in Beijing, China

4. Resisting Change
France has laws that try to preserve the French language from foreign words
France makes it difficult for companies like Starbucks to open in France
Older members of a society tend to resist change – they are often overwhelmed by the pace of change – this is called information overload

5. What is Information Overload?
Information overload is when people are overwhelmed by the rapid change of technology and culture.
This is especially true of older members of a modern culture.
They may feel as if they are in an alien world – in many ways, they are.
Many traditional cultures held elders and deep thinkers in high regard.

6. What causes Cultures to Change?
Three Things:
Changes in the Natural Environment
Forces within a Society
Contact between Societies
Forces within society led to a re-thinking of the role of women in American culture

7. Changes to the Natural Environment
The natural environment affects people and people affect the natural environment – (human environment interaction).
The environment and the culture are always related – they are interdependent on each other
You can almost say that the environment determines the culture.
Clearing of forests in areas leads to new cultural patterns

8. Examples of changes to the Environment
Climate change (end of the Ice Ages)
Using up of forests
Using up of arable land
Using up of nonrenewable resources
The end of the last Ice Age led to the invention of Agriculture (see map)

9. Environmental change Leads to… new inventions
new ideas and ways of doing things
migrations
wars over resources
Decrease in available fossil fuels will lead to alternative energy sources

10. Forces within a Society
The second way cultural change can come about is changes within society
Representative democracy replaced monarchy

11. Change can come from …
New Ideas – like democracy, or equality for women
Technology & New Inventions –
telephone replaces telegraph
replaced by cell phones
, and texting
A portable radio.
What two things can change come from?

12. Inventions & Society The culture and the inventions work together
The cotton gin changed the course of American history in the early 19th century

13. Remember, change is almost always resisted….
and embraced…

14. Change strikes at heart of Cultures… the family – think of the Amish
The automobile
The television
Career women
Birth Control
The Internet
All of these have had a profound affect on the American family.
It seemed like such a great idea…

15. This is what worries some people…
Cultural Loss
Old cultural patterns are replaced by new ones
Hardly anyone today knows how to take care of a horse
Many people fear that reliance on electronic devices diminishes actual human contact
This is what worries some people…

16. The third cause of change is: contact with other societies
Cultural diffusion – the movement of customs and ideas from one culture to another
Acculturation – when traits from a culture diffuse and largely replace traditional cultural patterns
What are cultural diffusion and acculturation?

17. What is Cultural Diffusion?
When Customs and ideas move from one culture to another.
American baseball has diffused all over the world
Traditions and foods move into the United States

18. What is Transculturation?
Transculturation – when an individual moves to another society and adopts its culture.
Modern American Indians have largely lost their own culture – it has been acculturated

19. Contact with other Societies
Stimulus diffusion –an idea or invention that is sparked from from another culture…
Writing systems are generally the result of stimulus diffusion – in otherwords, they are not invented independently
Olmec writing System – developed independently

20. Why has the rate of change increased?
Culture today are changing more rapidly than ever before.
Technology lies at the heart of this.
Especially transportation and communication technology.
This graphic is actually a few years out of date

21. What is The Global Village?
The idea that modern communications and transportation technology move ideas around the world rapidly.
When everyone around the world has quick and easy access to information its like we all live in a small village

22. Remember, change is almost always resisted and embraced.
When the automobile was first invented, why do you think it was both resisted and embraced? How would you have felt and why?