This document discusses cultural processes and change. It describes four main processes: innovation, diffusion, acculturation, and assimilation. Innovation refers to new additions to knowledge within a culture. Diffusion is the spread of cultural traits between societies through contact. Assimilation occurs when groups fuse into a new combined culture. The document also examines theoretical perspectives on culture, including structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and cultural materialism. It evaluates the strengths and limitations of each perspective in understanding culture. Finally, the key roles of culture in society are identified as providing identity, perpetuating existence, and promoting group pride and solidarity.
This document discusses cultural processes and change. It describes four main processes: innovation, diffusion, acculturation, and assimilation. Innovation refers to new additions to knowledge within a culture. Diffusion is the spread of cultural traits between societies through contact. Assimilation occurs when groups fuse into a new combined culture. The document also examines theoretical perspectives on culture, including structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and cultural materialism. It evaluates the strengths and limitations of each perspective in understanding culture. Finally, the key roles of culture in society are identified as providing identity, perpetuating existence, and promoting group pride and solidarity.
This document discusses cultural processes and change. It describes four main processes: innovation, diffusion, acculturation, and assimilation. Innovation refers to new additions to knowledge within a culture. Diffusion is the spread of cultural traits between societies through contact. Assimilation occurs when groups fuse into a new combined culture. The document also examines theoretical perspectives on culture, including structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and cultural materialism. It evaluates the strengths and limitations of each perspective in understanding culture. Finally, the key roles of culture in society are identified as providing identity, perpetuating existence, and promoting group pride and solidarity.
ways by which culture is generated, distributed and changed. The processes of cultural change include innovation, diffusion, acculturation and assimilation. (I) Innovation • Innovation may be defined as additions to knowledge and the use of knowledge in novel forms. Innovation cultural change comes from sources within the culture. • Innovations can come about through the discovery of new material in the environment for which a use already exists • An example is the invention of new coal pots in Ghana. This type of discovery and invention is more likely to occur in simple societies than Complex societies. Innovation con’t
• Yet another type of innovation is polygenesis which
refers to multiple independent innovations. That is, many people inventing the same thing independently at the same time is called multiple innovations. • Innovations are cumulative, that is, further improvements are made to already existing inventions. For example, improvement to the typewriter has been elevated to the invention of the computer. Further innovations arise from the applications of the old innovations.
Diffusion
• Diffusion refers to the process by which culture traits are transferred
from one society to another, through migration, trade, war or any other contact. Since Cultures have never been completely isolated from one another, diffusion has happened throughout history and it is still taking place. • There are three forms of cultural diffusion and they are direct, indirect and forced diffusion. • Direct diffusion occurs when two cultures are close to each other resulting in inter-marriages, trade and even warfare. In Ghana, an example of direct diffusion is seen among the various ethnic groups in areas such as the style and the type of clothes people wear, food, music, etc. Direct diffusion was very common in ancient times where small groups or bands of humans lived in adjoining settlements. • lndirect diffusion happens when culture traits are passed on from one culture to another through a middleman, to another culture, without the two cultures coming into direct contact with one another. Indirect culture is very common in today's world because of the mass media, the internet and urbanisation. • Forced diffusion takes place when one culture subjugates, conquers or enslaves another culture and forces its own customs on the conquered people. For example, when the Europeans came to the Gold Coast (now Ghana), they controlled the local people and made them practise Christianity. Diffiusion has various consequences. In some instances, the recipient group may benefit from the new elements, while in others, diffusion may negatively affect them. Assimilation
• Assimilation is the fusion of two or more different
cultures into a new culture that is quite unlike the original. Alternatively, assimilation may be defined as the process through which individuals or groups of people lose their distinctive or minority group patterns of behaviour and values and adopt the values and behavioural patterns of the dominant group. • Atypical example of assimilation is that practice in West Africa by the French who denounced the cultural practices of Africans and incorporated some Africans into French culture as French citizens. Theoretical Analysis of Culture
• Culture allows us to understand ourselves and
the world around us. However, sociologists and anthropologists try to understand culture by means of theoretical perspectives or paradigms such as the structural-functional analysis, social-conflict analysis and cultural materialism. Structural-Functional Analysis
• The structural-functional analysis sees society as a
relatively stable system of integrated parts designed to meet human needs. This means that various cultural traits, according to structural-functional analysıs, help to maintain the overall operation or stability of society. • The structural-functionalism draws on the philosophical doctrine of idealism which asserts that ideas rather than material conditions are the basis of human reality. That is, these ideas or the core values of society serve to bind all members together. Thus, the structural-functional analysis posits that cultural systems are stable and, therefore, they help society to operate in a stable manner.
The Evaluation of the Structural-Functional Analysis
• (1) The strength of the structural-functional paradigm lies in
how culture operates as an integral system in meeting human needs. • (2) However, by emphasising cultural stability, this perspective own plays the extent to which societies change. • (3) Similarly, functionalism's contention that cultural values are embraced by all numbers of a society overlooks the range of cultural diversity. • (4) Finally, the cultural patterns favoured by powerful people often dominate a society, while other ways of life are relegated to the background. Thus, cultures usually generate more conflicts than what structural-functional analysis maintains.
So ci al-C on flic t A nal ys is
• The social-conflict perspective sees culture differently from
the point of view of structural-functionalism. According to the social-conflict theorists, culture forms a dynamic arena of conflicts caused by social inequality. This perspective draws attention to the ways in which cultural traits serve the needs of some member of society at the expense of others. • Social-conflict analysts critically question why certain values dominate in a society. • They also question the forces which generate one set of values rather than another, and those who benefit from these social arrangements. Followers of Karl Marx argue that values are shaped by a society's system of economic production. Social-Conflict Analysis con’t
• This shows the social-conflict perspective's link to the
philosophical doctrine of materialism, the assertion that how people fashion their material world such as the capital economy has a powerful effect on other dimensions of their culture • Social-conflict analysis ties the competitive and individualistic values of capitalist societies to their economies, which serve the interests of those who own factories and other businesses. The culture of capitalism further teaches us to believe that the rich and powerful have more talents and discipline than others and, therefore, deserve their wealth and privileges. Viewing capitalism as somehow "natural” Some people, therefore, resist efforts to reduce economic disparity. Evaluation of the Social-Conflict Analysis
• The strength of the social-conflict perspective lies in
showing that, if cultural systems address human needs, they do so unequally. That is, the social- conflict analysis holds the view that cultural elements "function” to maintain the dominance of some people over others. This inequality, in turn, promotes change. Because the social-conflict perspective stresses the divisiveness of culture, however, it fails to Identity the ways in which cultural patterns integrate all members of society. Thus, there is the need to consider both social-conflict and structural-function insights to gain a fuller understanding of culture. Cultural Materialism
• This theoretical perspective is derived from
ecology, the branch of natural science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment. • Cultural materialism or cultural ecology, therefore, is the theoretical paradigm that explores the relationship of human culture to the physical environment. The perspective investigates how climate and the availability of food, water and other natural resources shape cultural patterns. Evaluation of Cultural Materialism
• Cultural materialism expands our understanding of
culture, highlighting its interplay with the environment, and revealing how cultural patters arise in response to particular natural conditions. However, this perspective has several limitations. It is difficult drawing simple or direct connections between the environment and culture because cultural and physical forces interact in subtle and complex ways. Further, this approach has less application to technologically sophisticated societies that extensively manipulate the natural world.
The Role of Culture in the Society
• The role of culture in any given society includes the following:
• (1) Culture serves as an Identification mark for a people or a society. That is, any society can be distinguished from all others by its mainstream cultural traits. For example, Ghana is noted throughout the world for her hospitability and Kente cloth. Thus, the distinguishing cultural trait can be material or non-material. • (ii) Culture perpetuates the existence of a people or a society. This means that the cultural practice of a society facilitates its existence in terms of politics, economic activities, reproduction, etc. • (iii) Culture offers feelings of group pride or sense of belonging, and collective self-awareness which in turn promotes solidarity, and a sense of direction. • (iv) Culture helps to view other societies in their right perspective. For example, cultural relativism helps us to view the behaviour of a people from the perspective of their own culture. Such a practice contributes to the promotion of peace among people of various cultures. (v) The cultural heritage of a people can provide attraction for tourists. This is usually seen in material culture. For example, the castles and forts in Ghana serve as monumental tourist attractions. Additionally, the tourist attractions provide sources of revenue for the state. • In conclusion, it can be said that no society can exist without a culture. All human activities are determined and directed by the cultural setting in which they are found. Without culture, we could not be "human' at all, in the sense in which we usually understand that term. We would have no language in which to express ourselves, no sense of self-consciousness, and our ability to think or reason would be limited (Giddens, 1993 p. 32).