Acculturation and Cultural Change

Cultural change is a topic that has been discussed several times in this course. In particular, explanations for the changes in modes of production from foragers to intensive agriculture were explained using a model from cultural materialism (population pressure leading to a threat to standard of living, etc. See last lesson of unit 1 if you don't remember this.) However, all cultures change, even if the changes are not of such a magnitude as to be a complete change in mode of production. Some of these changes, though by no means all, are indeed adaptations to particular problems or conditions of the the physical, biological, or social environment. In that context, the changes in airport security procedures that were implemented after Sept. 11, 2001 can be viewed as an adaptation to a change in the social environment.

Within the context of culture change, there are primarily three types: innovation/invention, diffusion, and acculturation, all discussed in this lesson. My definition of acculturation is slightly different from that of you text (Chapt. 13), and I have added more on acculturation as a special type of diffusion that is less than totally voluntary.

Innovation and Invention

Innovation and invention refers to any new idea or thing internally generated by members of a culture. Both occur in all cultures, but some cultures, in part due to necessity, encourage them more than other cultures. A culture that is facing a threat to its standard of living is likely to encourage innovation and invention, as is any culture faced with environmental change, whether physical, biological, or social. Industrial societies in particular, perhaps because of their sheer size, are often forced to encourage innovation and invention. Some have said that American culture values change, without much analysis as to whether it is actually beneficial.

Nonetheless perhaps 10% of the change in most cultures is actually due to innovation and invention. The rest is due to a combination of diffusion and acculturation. (Also see p. 34 in text for some definitions.)

Diffusion

Diffusion refers to one culture adopting cultural traits from another culture. In my definition, this adoption has to be entirely voluntary to warrant the term diffusion; otherwise, it is called acculturation. While a belief or a value or an idea may indeed diffuse, material objects are much more likely to diffuse from one culture to another. Beliefs and values in particular do not easily diffuse.

Since the adoption of a new trait requires that it be integrated into the recipient culture, in many cases the form may diffuse but the function in the recipient culture is often somewhat different than it was in the donor culture. Humans build on others ideas, or transform a material object to a different purpose, or infuse it with new meaning.

As the text notes, people generally are receptive to traits that will enhance their economic well-being, or their social survival. Crops and techniques for food production are often well-received (though not always: see Chapt.13); war technology if the the culture is engaged in war is also quickly adopted from another society.

A park in Shanghai, China in 1977

A different park in Shanghai in 2002 (Changes in dress primarily due to diffusion; or at least the willingness of the central government to allow diffusion.)

Acculturation

Acculturation is a special kind of diffusion, where the process is not entirely voluntary.[Do not confuse acculturation with enculturation!!] Acculturation is the process by which the culture of a society in a subordinate position is modified to conform to the culture of the dominant society. There are many ways that a culture might find itself in a subordinate position with respect to another culture, and may be strongly encouraged or literally forced to change. There are three (or maybe four) basic types of acculturation:

• as the different modes of production initially expanded into areas occupied by other modes; particularly the expansion of intensive agriculture and industrialism. (Particularly when it involved agrarian or industrial states, this is often referred to as imperialism or colonialism. See Chapt. 13.)
• as modern industrial states attempt to move all ethnic groups within their boundaries (former tribes, chiefdoms and even bands) toward a national culture ( to some extent the situation of the Nuer, San, and Yanomamo, as the respective states of which they are a minority group attempt to create a national culture.)
• as immigrant groups to an industrial state, where the state often has the goal of complete assimilation with the national culture (the situation of the Hmong in the United States).

Many would say there is a fourth kind of acculturation, where very large and powerful states (such as the United States) use their economic and military power to force less powerful states to change specific cultural attributes under threat of economic and/or military sanctions. This type of often ideological domination is what the text means by hegemony. Again, the cultural change is not exactly voluntary.

As part of Lab 6 (the optional lab), you may look at some of the problems posed for groups like the San, Nuer, and Yanomamo, as they face the second type of acculturation. In the historical process creating modern nations, most nations found their boundaries incorporated many former tribal peoples, or even former foraging bands. Many such cultures found that national political boundaries now divided them. All such tribes and bands found that sooner or later, they faced enormous pressure to change many aspects of their culture, including social values and religious beliefs. These peoples became merely ethnic minority groups within their homeland.

An ethnic group is a named social (not biological!) category of people, based on perceptions of shared social experience and/or ancestry. Members feel they share cultural traditions and history that distinguish them from other groups; there is a strong psychological/emotional component that divides the social world into "us vs. them".

Ethnic groups share a social history, and normally share what are called ethnic boundary markers that are used to distinguish them from other groups. These boundary markers may include language, religion, dress, cultural practices, and sometimes specific physical (genetic) traits. In many cases, these boundary markers become the specific targets of the dominant culture or ethnic group who are attempting to incorporate remove--the minority ethnic group. In modern terms this type of "acculturation" is often referred to as ethnic homogenization.

Ethnic Homogenization

Homogenization is an interesting word, perhaps most familiar to people from homogenized milk. I remember (back in the old days) when milk was not homogenized and arrived at one's home in bottles. If you let the bottle sit, the butterfat would separate out and rise to the top as cream, leaving fat free milk at the bottom. The process of homogenizing milk meant that it was so thoroughly mixed that nothing would ever separate out. Ethnic homogenization is a new term which means the process by which one ethnic group attempts to eliminate a rival ethnic group. It is a stronger, but perhaps more accurate, word for acculturation.

There are two forms of ethnic homogenization:

1. Ethnic Cleansing. This is another relatively new term, which refers to the physical elimination within a region of a specific ethnic group. An ethnic group can be physically eliminated by either:
   • genocide (killing all members of the group, an approach attempted at one time by Sudan against the Nuer and neighboring tribes) or
   • relocation (moving members of the group to another area, which has been done in Namibia and Botswana to the San and in Brazil to the Yanomamo, resulting in the loss of a significant portion of their homelands.)
2. Assimilation, or as some would call it, ethnocide: the total social absorption of one ethnic group by another dominant one. Once again, there are two types:
   
   • forced, where the state as a matter of policy forces the subordinate ethnic group to eliminate ethnic boundary markers such as language, dress, religion or other cultural markers.
   • passive, where there is no planned or official policy on the part of the state, but boundary markers are eliminated in the presence of social discrimination. (Pressure for passive assimilation is primarily what the Hmong, as well as other immigrant groups, face in the United States.)

Another possibility exists for the many many nations with varied ethnic groups:accommodation. Accommodation means the formal recognition and support of ethnic and cultural differences, including those of language and religion. Unfortunately, recent history as well as present day events seem to illustrate how unlikely that is. While many in the United States believe that this culture is a good example of accommodation, others would note that forced and passive assimilation have and do pose cultural problems for many ethnic groups in the US, both indigenous and immigrant.