SOC 370: Social
Change
Dr. Kimberly Martin

Definition
A group of people who live according to a shared culture
Social refers to interactions between two or more people
Socialization occurs when you learn the behavior patterns of your group

Definition
The abstract, learned, shared rules/patterns/standards for generating behavior and interpreting experience.
Enculturation is learning the culture you grow up in.
Acculturation is learning a culture different from that in which you grew up.

Culture does not exist outside of people’s heads
Each person has his or her own version of a culture based on life experience and the roles he or she knows (age, gender, professional, social class, ethnicity, etc)
No one person knows the entirety of a culture
Culture is a composite of all the rules for all the roles that anyone plays in a given society

Culture change occurs in one of two ways
1. A new behavior pattern spreads through a group, followed by a change in the rules and standards to conform with the new behavior pattern (eg. the sexual revolution of the
1960’s)
2. A change in the conscious rules of the society, followed by a change in behavior patterns (eg. the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and
1960’s)
Change in behavior patterns and changes in rules do not usually occur simultaneously

• Internal Source = invention or discovery
• Internal Motivation = cultural evolution
• External Source = diffusion
• External Motivation = conquest or colonialism

Group Change
• Evolution = change within a society that results when cultural changes are voluntarily integrated into the daily life of the society
• Diffusion = when a society borrows a culture trait from another society
• Syncretism = the blending of culture traits from two distinct cultures
Individual Change
• Acculturation = when an individual learns a culture in addition to the one in which he/she is raised
• Assimilation = acculturation that has progressed to the point that the individual is indistinguishable from members of the new society
• Biculturalism = when an individual is fluent in two cultures and can switch at will from one to the other

• This is the sort of natural change that occurs in all societies, as people adjust their cultures to fit new environmental conditions and situations. Individuals try out new strategies and/or beliefs, and the rest of the society decides whether the new practice is working well. When a new practice is adopted by a significant segment of the society, then culture change has occurred.

• This occurs when a culture trait is borrowed by a society in which it did not develop. For example, Coke and Pepsi are found throughout the world in literally hundreds of societies. These products have diffused around the world.

• Syncretism occurs when aspects of two cultures are blended into a single culture trait. A good example of this is Mexican food as it is served in Southern California.
Taco Bell and El Torito are not authentic
Mexican food. They are a blending of
Mexican and American ingredients cooked in Mexican styles that have been adapted to American tastes.

• This is what occurs when individuals or groups migrate to an new country or culture.
They must adjust to the new cultural context in which they find themselves. Immigrants tend to acculturate at different rates depending on the part of culture they need to change, and the number of immigrants from their home culture that are living in the new society. Religion is usually one of the last aspects of culture to be changed.

• This is what happens when individuals acculturate to a new culture and become so fully immersed that they are indistinguishable from native members of the new society into which they have moved. Research shows that it takes three generations for immigrants to fully assimilate to a new culture. The actual immigrants themselves have little chance of assimilation. It is their grandchildren who will be fully assimilated.

• Biculturalism occurs when an individual knows two cultures extremely well, and can act as a native in either culture.
Bicultural individuals frequently switch back and forth from one culture to another, depending on the social context in which they find themselves.


Massive change in entire culture

Short time period

May be new culture or return to past traditions
Internally Motivated Externally Motivated
1. Revolution = violent overthrow of existing leadership
1. Conquest = forced massive change after war
2. Millenial Movement = secular with political leader
2. Colonization = occupation with goal of economic exploitation
2. Revitalization = religious with religious prophet as leader

Society
Social
Socialization
Culture
Enculturation
Behavior patterns
Cultural rules
Internal source
External source
Internal motivation
External motivation
Evolution
Diffusion
Syncretism
Acculturation
Biculturalism
Assimilation
Revolution
Millenial movement
Revitalization movement
Conquest
Colonization