Transcript Theories of Continuity and Change

Society and Culture
HSC
Core
Factors causing aspects of societies to
change, or to remain essentially the same
come from within. Eg technological change;
the country/citizens need to accept or reject
the change.

Substantial change comes from outside by
acculturation
•
Acculturation: the learning process where
knowledge is transferred from one culture
to another by direct or secondary contact.
Enculturation: learning how to use the
accepted patterns of cultural behaviour that
your culture prescribes and gives you full
members of your society.
•

The acculturation is usually due to first-hand
contact with another group – usually a more
powerful one.
 Usually
the significant changes that have
occurred in countries have been due to :
1.
2.


Colonialism
Globalism in post-colonial world
Change in the country of study is most
likely associated with modernisation
(discarding of tradition) and globalisation
(the breaking down of barriers between
nations, societies and cultures).
It is important to consider the concept of
localisation, which is the particular way
that groups of people have responded to
globalisation.
 Various
theories offer explanations of these
responses in terms of accommodation and
resistance that is, to what extent have
people accepted change and to what extent
they have resisted it?
 Often
holding on to tradition has resulted in
revitalisation, a reaffirmation even a rebirth
of traditional practices.
 Understanding
the development of the
theories of social continuity and change can
help us understand and evaluate the more
contemporary ideas that they gave birth to.
 Evolutionism, functionalism, historical
particularism and Marxian conflict theory are
sets of ideas that were developed to explain
the nature of societies in the 19th and early
20th centuries.
 Marxist conflict theory is believed to to be
the only one to have any relevance to change
in the world today.
 Social
researchers began being interested in
explaining the nature of human societies and
cultures in the last half of the 19th century.
(1860’s plus)
 This was a time of colonial expansion,
especially in Africa, and the Europeans were
curious about relatively isolated social
groups.
 Industrialisation was also introducing
different ways of life in what was becoming
the developed world.

Evolutionists.
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Largely ‘armchair’ social researchers
Heavily influenced by ethnocentric values of the
colonial era and applying a scientific approach to
investigating societies.
Key people:
Edward Tyler (1832 – 1917): argued that all societies
evolved in a unilinear direction from simple to more
complex eg agricultural to industrial.
o Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903): saw societies all
eventually evolving into an industrial atage,
characterised by individual freedom. He coined the
phrase ‘survival of the fittest’.
o
o
The evolutionist assumed the European societies
were superior to others supported the colonial
powers views.

Reaction to evolutionists came in 2 different
forms:
1.
Historical particularsim, from USA. The basic
assumption was that any particular culture was
partially made up of elements different from other
cultures.
Key People:

o
o
o
o
o
o
Franz Boas (1858 – 1942)
Margaret mead (1901 – 1978)
They looked inside to describe a culture (‘emic’ rather
than ‘etic’ view)
Their subjective approach effectively discarded the idea
that societies could be studied scientifically.
They also practiced cultural relativism, meaning that
beliefs and behaviour can only be understood in a
particular cultural context.
Some of these ideas can be found in post-modernism
theory.
Structural functionalism, from Britain. Held the
view that social life was orderly and followed a
pattern and could be studied scientifically.
2.
Key people :

o
o
•
•
•
Emily Durkheim (1858 – 1917)
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 – 1942)
They likened social institutions in a society to
organs of the human body, that is, functioning
neatly in a complementary way to produce an
essentially stable unit.
Functionalists underrated conflict and ignored
social change.
Both historical particularists and structural
functionalists emphasised the importance of
fieldwork (participant observation) as a tool to
investigate societies.
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) was a revolutionary whose
theoretical ideas were directed towards
comprehending and then overthrowing the
capitalism of the industrial age. His ideas were
used by a group of thinkers who have variously
explained social change as occurring diverging
interests because of the diverging interests of
wage-earners and the elite (owners of capital –
wealthy) or more broadly, because of the
competition between social groups, each pursuing
power, wealth and prestige.
Marxian ideas have influenced other later theoretical
perspectives, eg feminism.

 Theoretical
approaches to studying societies
and cultures are often compared and
contrasted in terms of their general
approaches, which in turn raise issues when
it comes to critical evaluation.
Approach
Approach applied to theory
Materialism
• Marxian conflict theory
(economic relations determines
the nature of society and
culture)
•Cultural ecology (societies are
defined by the nature of the
environment that surrounds
them)
Explains human life in terms of
tangible features such as
technology, management of
resources
Idealism
The focus is mainly on the
human mind and explanations of
societies are made in terms of
aspects like beliefs and symbols.
•Structuralism (structure is the
resilient, regulating aspects of
society that constrains the
actions of its members; societies
are structured by the principles
that underpin thinking in that
society).
•Symbolic anthropology(culture
is seen as a system of meaning
that can be interpreted through
key symbols and rituals.)
Critical evaluation of Materialism and idealism:
 Societies
and cultures are not entirely
determined by either materialism or
idealism; rather it is a combination of both.
Approach
Approach applied to theory
•Agency-centred
Agency, the interaction of
people, explains how society is
shaped.
•Symbolic anthropology (people’s
symbolic interactions through
rituals give meaning to society
and culture)
•Transactionalism (people act to
promote their own or their
group’s interest in society,
primarily though exchange,
reciprocity)
•Feminism (emphasis is on the
research ‘subjects’ rather than
generalisation; social relations
are ‘gendered’).
Approach
Approach applied to theory
Structure-centred
Functionalism (social action had
Social structure i.e. Institutions
little effect on social structure)
(eg family, the law) constrain the
actions of people and determine
how society operates.
Critical evaluation of Agency-centred and structure-centred:
Recent social theory, like Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice
see agency and structure as complementary features of society.
Approach
Approach applied to theory
Particularism
•Symbolic anthropology
(emphasises ‘local knowledge’)
•Historical particularism (focuses
on each culture being unique)
Society and culture can be
understood according to their
specific social context .
Structuralism (explains society as
being organised like the human
Society and culture can best be
understood by examining general mind, which is common to every
human)
aspects of life that are common
to all societies.
Universalistic
Critical evaluation:
Various aspects of any society can be explained in either
particularistic or universalistic terms, depending on their nature.
Approach
Approach applied to theory
Sychronic
•Social action/transactions (little
attention paid to historical
matters)
Explains society in terms of the
relationships between aspects of
society and culture as a specific
point in time.
Diachronic
Explains society as having been
shaped by many influences,
internal and external, through
time.
•Evolutionism (sees societies as
being on a developmental path
through history)
•Historical particularim (some
reference is made to the role of
history in creating a unique
culture.)
Critical evaluation:
Synchronic approaches ignore the possibility that societies
could have changed through history.
Approach
Approach applied to theory
Cohesion
•Functionalism (societies are
essentially stable because
institutions complement each
other, work together)
The need for solidarity, stability
and consensus explains how
society is maintained.
Conflict
Societies can be explained by
the understanding that the
potential for conflict underlies
most social relations.
•Marxian conflict theory
(different groups in society
compete for power, wealth and
prestige, and that creates
conflict)
•Conflict theory (from1950’s)
(conflict is positive as it binds
society together in equilibrium;
it is a ‘safety valve’; conflict
with an outside group generated
internal solidarity).
Critical evaluation:
Many societies can be explained by applying a combination of
cohesive and conflict influences.
Approach
Approach applied to theory
Positivist
•Cultural ecology (generalises
about the impact of the
environment on how society
operates)
Social research is approached
scientifically, uncovering a preexisting reality about the way
society works.
•Feminism (life histories and
Ethnographic research constructs narratives give voice to people)
a reality through the encounters •Postmodernism (studies should
be polyvocal, ie have multiple
of the researchers and their
authors, including the
subjects
anthropologists, research
subjects, informants)
Interpretivist
Critical evaluation:
Positivists take the more scientific approach of ‘getting the facts
right’, while interpretivists would say that analysing their
encounters with their research subjects is as important as ‘the
facts’ Who is right?
 These
are summary description of a range of
more contemporary theories, examining how
each one explains continuity and social
change.
 Consider how one or more apply to your
chosen country and do some extra research
on them.

Historical background:
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Approaches:
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Human groups continuously adapt to changing conditions as the balance between
environmental, technological and economic conditions varies.
Application to a society:


Culture is shaped by environmental conditions, the less developed the level of
technology; the greater the influence of the environment; each culture
represents a practical adaption to its environment.
The individual is insignificant in comparison to social structure and social groups.
Continuity and change:


Marvin Harris, Julian Steward
Essential features:
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
Materialism, diachronic, structure-centred, universalistic (etica)
Key people:


From evolutionism, states that societies develop along different lines, not
unilinear, emerged during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
The Yanomamo, indigenous people of the Amazon, facing changes due to
deforestation of their land, have had to adapt accordingly, introducing a greater
degree of technology and alternative economic strategies.
Critical evaluation:

Cultural ecology’s efforts to approach the study of societies and cultures
‘scientifically’ sidelined the meanings, emotions and ‘voices’ of the subjects
(people).

Historical background:


Apporaches:
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Relations between leaders and others in society maintain the social order (continuity), but this order
can be modified by the actors (persons) as they strive to achieve their goals. Methods of transaction
can adapt to changes introduces through acculturation.
Application to a society:


Society is constantly changing and social structure is flexible.
People are in constant competition for scarce resources.
Individuals are emphasised – they are self –interested entrepreneurs whose actions can bring about
modifications to the framework of society.
Exchange (transfer of valuables), reciprocity (mutual exchange or obligation) and transactions are
emphasised.
Continuity and change:


F.G. Bailey, Jeremy Boissevain, Fredrik Barth, Andrew Strathern.
Essential features:


Materialism, synchronic, agency-centred, universalistic, interpretivist.
Key people:


A critical response to functionalism. However, Malinowski, a functionalist, did study the Trobrianders
and described them as self-interested this perspective emerged in the 1970’s and still has credibility
today. manipulators connected thorough reciprocity.
In Papua New Guinea, ‘big-men’ are appointed political leaders, who advance their own interests
through competitive exchange (moka) of material goods. Also peacemakers. Colonisation and
globalisation have changed the nature of goods exchanged. Acculturation and nation-building have
combined to undermine the status of the ‘big man’.
Critical evaluation:

Transactionalism is a good model to explain how capitalism can become accomodated in a developing
society. It is also a useful theory to explain the informal aspects fo society, where real action occurs.
However, too little consideration is given to larger social structures in society and history in not taken
into account.

Historical background:
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Approaches:
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Language is the distinctive feature of human beings and the basis for the production and reproduction of social forms.

Culture is like a language; the concepts used by linguists can be used to understand aspects of human society, such as religion
and art.

Focused on the abstract, deep structure of society, rather than the observable, surface structure.

Aspects of culture, such as kinship, food, politics and marriage, reflect the unconscious attitudes which underpin that society.

Most focused on belief and knowledge systems.

Perceived time as events occurring across space than history. Therefore aspects such as mythology can be observed in similar
forms across different societies and continent.
Continuity and change:
Structures are portrayed as constrains on societies, preventing change. However, structuralism also emphasises how culture
consists of continual communication between persons that leads to ongoing transformation; but culture is always shaped by
the same underlying principles.
Application to a society:


Claude Levi-Strauss, who was the most highly regarded anthropologist of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Essential features:


Ideaism, sychronic, structure-centred, universalistic (etic0 interpretivist.
Key people:


Influenced by Boas, a historical particularist, who thought that people developed knowledge as a way of managing emotions
and new information.
Levi-Strauss searched for the common, essential elements that societies may share through studying tribes that inhabit the
Amazon Basin .He placed these tribes in a world context, drawing parallels between cultural aspects such as myths, that
spanned continents.
Critical evaluation

Useful for explaining continuity, but largely ignores social change in terms of structure. Structuralism deals mostly with
‘mental’ information, which is not clearly related to the material world and avoids social issues.
Historical
background:
• Close connection
with Marxism, but
focus of inequality
is on gender rather
than ‘class’.
Anthropologically,
feminists reject
the scientific
approach to social
research, because
of its gender and
cultural bias.
Feminism emerged
in the 1970’s and
continues to be a
useful theoretical
perspective
particularly as it
crosses over to
postmodernism.
Approaches:
• Idealism,
diachronic both
agency and
structure focused,
universalistic (both
emic and etic)
interpretivist.
Key people:
• Marilyn Strathern,
Marjorie Shostak.
Essential features:
• All social relations
are gendered, the
focus is on gender,
but not just on
women.
• Research is a
collaborative
experience
between the
researcher and
subjects
(subjective); male
researchers are
seen as
‘objective’. Aim of
research is
empowerment of
women and their
liberation form
oppression.
• Connected to
postmodernism
because questions
the whole idea of
applying ‘gender’
as a western
concept to
societies that may
have a completely
different
understanding and
application of
‘gender’.
• Qualitative
research methods,
such as life
histories and
narratives are
preferred.
Continuity and
change:
Application to a
society:
• Feminists argue
that modernisation
of developing
countries has led
to the decline of
women’s economic
and political
autonomy. In
western
democracies, while
progress has been
made towards
gender equity, the
suggestion is that
the gap between
men’s and
women’s worlds
may be widening
and that violence
has increased.
• Dorothy Hodgson’s
work with the
maasai
communities in
Kenya has shown
that the
governments aim
to build modern
houses, instead of
the ones
traditionally built
by the women of
sticks, mud and
cow dung has led
to a situation
where the women
no longer have
control of their
home and who can
enter and that the
men are marrying
for economic
diversity and
disempowering the
women.
Critical evaluation:
• Social research and
analysis centred on
women provides a
particular
perspective that
may otherwise not
be presented.
Combined with
postmodernism it
provides an
effective criticism
of ‘scientific’
approaches to
research.
Feminism can be
criticised because,
in being driven to
improve women’s
lives, it may ignore
the importance of
acquiring solid,
comprehensive
data (knowledge
with which to
analyse societies
and cultures.

Historical background:
•

Approaches:
•

•
•
A specific culture is predominantly autonomous and distinctive from others.
•
Culture is a system of meaning that anthropologists can analyse by interpreting symbols and rituals.
•
Description of culture is highly detailed ‘ thick description’ focusing on the local context rather than making extensive
comparisons with other societies.
•
Understanding hoe societies work is likened to analysing a text.
Continuity and change:
Continuity of tradition symbols and rituals represents resistance to change; these same traditions may adapt to accommodate
modernisation and consequently change.
Application to society:
•
•
Clifford Geertz (1926 – 2006)
Essential features:
•
•
Idealism, synchronic, agency-centered, particularistic (emic) intertretivist.
Key people:
•

Developed from the historical particularism perspective, but was also influenced by Claude Levi-Strauss’s structuralism.
Emerged in the 1970’s and 1980’s and is still highly respected. Clifford Geertz is also regarded as a forerunner to the
postmodernist approach.
In Bali, it was noted that traditional aristocracy (regional rulers) were a catalyst for change because they embraced westernstyle enterprise and development as they sought to open new avenues of wealth and power. Approved ‘tourist communities’,
maintained traditions and symbols but accommodated interaction with tourists. Therefore, the nature of the community
changed. On Muslim Java little changed as the conservative Muslims had control of development and trade. Modernisation in
Indonesia was unlikely to be due to an emerging middle class but rather would need direct intervention of central
government.
Critical evaluation:
•
Symbolic systems do not readily include reference to history. Also, the idea of the world being made up of many separate,
unique cultures has become less credible as the globalisation process has escalated. Symbolic anthropology provides a good
model for explaining continuity and how tradition may influence the local response to external forces of change.

Historical background:
•
Approaches:
•
Key people:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Idealism and materialism, largely synchronic and agency-centred, particularist (emic), but within a universalistic framework.
James Clifford, Geroge Marcus.
Essential features:
•
Questions very idea of researchers describing and analysing people in cultures other than their own. This is seen as an extension of colonialism, reflecting an
imbalance between developed and developing countries; they assert that people being studied lacked the opportunity to speak for themselves.
•
Accordingly any social and cultural research needs to be polyvocal; not only written by the researchers but by the subjects themselves.
•
Postmodernists have been described as ‘responsible anarchists’, dealing with the realities of life not ‘grand theories’.
•
Regard culture as a system of symbols, and the task of the researchers and their subjects together is to breakdown essential elements, such as ‘family’ and
‘gender’ into their component parts in order to find out what underlying ideology and power aspects are.
•
A re-emphasis of the concept of relativism, that is , understanding customs in their specific cultural context, especially in light of globalism.
Continuity and change;
•
•
Developed in early 1980’s, growing out of the symbolic, interpretive approach of Clifford Geertz. One of the currently accepted theoretical approaches.
Postmodernism accepts uncertainty, acknowledges diversity and views the concepts of ‘society’ and ‘justice’ as flexible, not controlled fixed truths. It recognises
and explains why change can occur. It gives a ‘voice’ and potentially power to ordinary people in societies, recognising the possibility of a new social order.
Globalisation is recognised as a potent force for change. It says that globalisation produces local diversity and differences creating new types of hybrid societies.
Postmodernists also regard the explosion of information technologies as having produced a new society in which technology itself, knowledge and information are
now the principles underlying social organisation. People have moved away form previous realities and created a new social environment.
Applications to a society;
•
Holly Wardlow looked at the women of Highlands Papua New Guinea, in particular the ‘passenger women’. These are women who sell sex and are found at
roadside market places, where public busses pass. They are not described as ‘sex workers’ because that is too simplistic as there are non-sexual and nonmonetary aspects to the passenger women. An important component of this identity is freedom of movement and autonomy. A post modern interpretation of
these women’s action is that their non-acceptance of the conventional social order is bringing about change, that is, moving towards a possible new social order
in terms of gender relations.
•
In a larger context, globalisation had facilitated the government’s permission for the introduction of capitalism to socialist Vietnam, empowering groups to
respond to their newfound economic society within a framework of communist ideology.
Critical evaluation:
•
Postmodernism provides a credible explanation of globalisation as an agent of social change in terms of local culture response. Postmodernists tend to ‘glorify’
the differences between cultures and gloss over similarities.

Historical background:
•
•
Approaches:
•
•
•
•
Habitus is a term Bourdieu coined to mean a ‘practical sense’ (unconsciously learned) about their world that inclines people
to particular actions – they act intuitively, according to how they feel they should operate in a particular social context. They
are not always making rational choices.
•
A ‘field’ is a social context in which people with different positions interact according to the degree of power they have,
struggling for desirable resources eg principals, head teachers, students and maintenance staff in a school.
•
Capital may be economic (money, material goods) , social (connections between persons and groups), cultural (skills,
qualifications), or symbolic (prestige, honour).
•
Symbolic violence occurs when those in power impose their thoughts and ideas on people they dominate, endeavouring to
make them change their behaviour. The subordinates then tend to believe that the prevailing social order is just.
Continuity and change:
The conflicts that take place in society are largely confined to specific ‘fields’ as ‘actors’ people must compete for
dominance. Bourdieu suggests that social capital is an analytical tool to explain social stratification (the organisation of
people into structures of inequality, such as age, gender, class, ethnicity). Symbolic capital is seen as being a significant
source of power. Bourdieu describes change as resulting from the conflict between a generation’s habitus, formed in
childhood, and the socio-economic environment it faces at the time of adulthood. Bourdieu said that it is possible for groups
to resist domination and globalisation through social action.
Application to a society:
•
•
Pierre Bourdieu (1930 – 2002)
Essential features:
•
•
Idealism and materialism, synchronic, both agency-centred and structure-centred, universalistic (both emic and etic)
Key people:
•
•
Enhanced Karl Marx’s idea of ‘capitalism’ to apply to all social activity, not just economics. Emphasis on the importance of
symbolic systems in society; from Levi-Strauss’s structuralism. Bourdieu also emphasised the likelhood of social structures
reproducing themselves. He took the direction from his influences by highlighting the role of the person in acting out the
symbolic system of society. Became accepted in 1980’s, 1990’s and today.
If we apply this theory of practice to Australian society, it could be said that the people’s social connections (social capital)
have allowed economic and political power to largely remain in the hands of those who have the best ‘feel’ (habitus) in their
‘fields’ of business, politics and social affairs.
Critical evaluation:
•
Bourdieu’s theory of practice offers a very credible explanation of continuity and change in society through its exploration of
how an intuitive understanding of the appropriate way to act in specific situation can be used as a strategy to achieve or
maintain power over others. Critics would say that not enough account is taken of history and also that his theory does not
thoroughly address social change instigated by external factors.
 All
these theories vary in how and when they
should be applied to help you understand a
social and/or cultural change. Some you will
find accessible some you may find confusing.
The key is to work with the theories you feel
comfortable using to explain specific
changes.
 Howitt,
B. And Julian, R., Society and
Culture, Heinemann, Second Edition, Sydney,
2009.