Chapter 26
Processes of Change
Chapter Preview
Why Do Cultures Change?
 How Do Cultures Change?
 What Is Modernization?

Why Do Cultures Change?
All cultures change.
 Some changes may be unforeseen,
unplanned, and undirected.
 Changes will result in existing values
and behavior changes.
 This may even involve the massive
imposition of foreign ideas and
practices through conquest of one
group by another.

How Do Cultures Change?

The mechanisms of culture change
include all of the following:
 Innovation
 Diffusion
 Cultural Loss
 Acculturation/Ethnocide
 Genocide
 Directed Change
Innovation
This is the ultimate source of change in all
societies.
 Innovation is any new idea, method, or
device that gains widespread acceptance
in the society.
 Can be primary innovation- chance,
discovery, or invention of completely new
idea, method, or device.
 Can also be secondary innovation- a
deliberate application or modification of an
existing idea, method, or device.

Diffusion
Diffusion is the spread of ideas,
customs, or practices from one culture
to another.
 Cultures that are geographically close
in proximity are known to have a lot of
diffusion between them.
 Travel, trade, modern communication
can all help diffusion to occur and
slowly change certain aspects of a
culture.

Cultural Loss
When cultural loss occurs or the
abandonment of an existing practice
or trait it can often be replaced with a
new practice or technology.
 This replacement can result in cultural
change, although not all cultural
losses result in a replacement.
 If a trait is lost and not replaced it can
hinder a cultures growth and thus still
causing a change.

Repressive Change:
Acculturation and Ethnocide

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Massive culture change that occurs in a
society when it experiences contact with a
more powerful society is known as
acculturation.
This can lead to a forced change (often
ethnocide) or change by power alone.
In other words the change is inevitable
because the stronger culture will “force”
change onto the weaker culture.3
Ethnocide & Genocide
Not all acculturation is violently forced
as mentioned. However ethnocide is
certainly a violent eradication of an
ethnic groups cultural identity.
 May include the killing of people which
is better known as genocide- the
physical extermination of people by
another outside group.


Hitler's Germany Nazi regime is the
most well known example of
genocide.
Directed Change


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
Genocide and ethnocide are not focused on
“change” rather eradication of a group of people.
Directed change can often be seen when colonial
entities attempt to “help” indigenous peoples.
Often these powerful forces do not handle or
assist the weaker groups in a positive way,
whether their intentions were good or not.
Due to a lack of understanding of native cultural
practices and life ways.
Response to Repressive
Change
Inevitably there is some type of
response of indigenous peoples to the
changes that have been thrust upon
them
 Two documented responses to this
type of change are tradition and
syncretism.

Tradition & Syncretism


Tradition- the customary ideas and
practices passed down from generation to
the next, which in a modernizing society
may form an obstacle to new ways of doing
things.
Syncretism- in acculturation, change is the
creative blending of indigenous and foreign
beliefs and practices into new cultural
forms.
 Trobriand Islanders embracing European
Cricket with their own style is a great
example of syncretism.
Revitalization Movements
As discussed in the chapter on
religion and spirituality, revitalization
movements can be used as a
mechanism of change.
 Most commonly a reaction to
repressive change- cargo cults are an
example of this.

Rebellion and Revolution
If societal discontent reaches its boiling point one
can witness rebellion and or revolution.
 Rebellion
 Organized armed resistance to an established
government or authority in power.
 Revolution
 Radical change in a society or culture. In the
political arena, it refers to the forced overthrow
of an old government and establishment of a
completely new one.
Conditions for Rebellion and
Revolution
Factors that lead to resistance or overthrow of
government:
1. Loss of prestige of established authority.
2. Threat to recent economic improvement.
3. Indecisiveness of government.
4. Loss of support of the intellectual class.
5. A leader or group of leaders with enough
charisma or popular appeal to mobilize the
population against the establishment.
Modernization
Modernization is the process of
cultural and socioeconomic change,
whereby developing societies acquire
some of the characteristics of Western
industrialized societies.
 This process can be best understood
by looking at the five sub processes of
modernization.

Subprocesses of Modernization
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Technological development
Agricultural development
Urbanization
Industrialization
Telecommunication
Globalization
The western view has held that nonwestern societies should be able to
reach and maintain a level of living
close to that of westerners.
 The reality is that the global
population can not consume at the
rate of westerners.
 A depletion of non-renewable
resources will be inevitable and quick.
