CULTURAL CHANGE
Mechanisms of Change
All cultures change
Cultures often have gradual change
Pace of change may shift dramatically
Mechanisms of Change
Innovation Diffusion Cultural
Innovation
Any
new practice, tool, or principle that gains widespread acceptance within a
group
Primary
innovation
Secondary
innovation
Innovation
Factors of adoption
Particular innovations are bound to be made given certain sets of cultural
goals, values, and knowledge
Innovations are given structure by the culture
Must overcome force of habit
Diffusion
Spread
of customs or practices between cultures
Large
part of cultural inventory due to diffusion
Cultural Loss
Disappearance
of a cultural trait
Middle East
Chariots
and carts widely used before 6th century
Disappear
and are replaced by camels
Forcible Change
Acculturation
Major
cultural changes forced through contact
Merger
or fusion
Extinction
Genocide
Extermination of a people
Often deliberate and in the name of “progress”
North America
Tasmania
Europe
Iraq
Minimum of 6.8 million victims, 1945 - 1980
Directed Change
Conquest
or displacement produces extreme cases of acculturation
Ju/’hoansi
of Namibia
Applied
anthropology
Use
of anthropological knowledge and techniques to solve practical problems
Reactions to Forcible Change
Movement
to isolated places
Conflict
Creative
means to maintain traditions
Syncretism
Revitalization Movements
Attempts
to construct a more satisfactory culture
Forms
Speeding
acculturation process
Reconstituting
a destroyed way of life
Attempting
to create a new social order
Revolutionary
Rebellion and Revolution
Precipitators
of rebellion and revolution
Loss
of prestige of established authority
Threat to recent economic improvement
Indecisiveness of government
Loss of support of the intellectual class
Leader
or group of leaders with charisma enough to mobilize a substantial part of the
population against the establishment
Modernization
Process
of cultural and socioeconomic change
Developing
societies acquire Western characteristics
Four
subprocesses
Technological
development
Agricultural
development
Industrialization
Urbanization
Skolt
Lapps and the Snowmobile Revolution
Reindeer herders of northern Finland
Were independent and egalitarian
Introduced snowmobiles to facilitate herding
Unexpected consequences
Dependency on the outside world
Need for cash and wage work
Stratification of society
Decline of the herds and herding
De-domestication of reindeer
The Shuar Solution
Amazonian Indians of Ecuador
Avoided modernization until faced with annihilation
Founded Shuar Federation to protect their culture
Recognized by Ecuador’s
government
Secured title to 96,000 hectares of communal land
Established a herd of more than 15,000 cattle
Taken control over education
Using Shuar language and teachers
Established bilingual paper and radio station
Maintained kin-based communities, language, economy
Modernization and the
“Underdeveloped” World
Removal of economic activities from family-community setting
Altered structure of the family
Decline of parental authority and education
Appearance of a generation gap
Women placed in marginal positions
Modernization: Must It Always Be Painful?
Many
aspire to attain western standard of living
Unrealistic
expectation
Culture
of discontent
People
moving to cities to seek better life but become trapped in poverty