Development Anthropology

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Development Anthropology

• Cultural Change

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• Development Anthropology
• How cultures change
• How anthropologists can inform and transform the
  process of international development

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• International Development
• A process of directed change that focuses on
  improving the welfare of people in so-called
  underdeveloped countries
• Often through promoting economic growth

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• Mechanisms
• of
• Cultural Change

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Mechanisms of Change

• Invention
• Diffusion
• Including stimulus diffusion
• Migration
• Devolution (cultural loss)

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Mechanisms of Change

• Invention
• The creation of something new
• primary
• discovery of new principles
• secondary
• application of principles
• Often associated with rapid change

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Inventions
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Mechanisms of Change

• Diffusion
• The spread of something from one group to the
  next
• Borrowing
• Often associated with slow change
• Including stimulus diffusion . . .

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Mechanisms of Change

• Stimulus Diffusion
• The spread of an idea from one group to the next

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Diffusion

• Can occur between unequal societies
• through force
• through education or marketing

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Diffusion

• A culture can become so completely acculturated
  that it becomes assimilated

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Mechanisms of Change

• Migration
• The movement of a person or people from one place
  to another

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Mechanisms of Change

• Devolution (cultural loss)
• Loss without replacement of a cultural trait
• Can be slow or rapid

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• Modernization
• A model of change based on the belief in the
  inevitable advance of science and Western
  secularism and processes
• including industrial growth, consolidation of the
  state, bureaucratization, market economy,
  technological innovation, literacy, and options
  for social mobility

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• Modernization
• Globalization?

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Cultural Change

• Main Causes of Change
• Environment
• Individual variation (innovation)
• Contact with other groups
• Diffusion
• Including Stimulus diffusion
• Acculturation . . .

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Acculturation

• Change that takes place as a result of
• firsthand
• continuous contact
• between two or more groups

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Acculturation

• Is usually rapid change, but it varies . . .

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Acculturation

• It varies with
• Degree of cultural difference
• Circumstances of contact
• Intensity of contact . . .

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Acculturation

• It varies with
• Frequency of contact
• Amiability of contact . . .

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Acculturation

• It varies with
• Relative status of agents of contact
• Who is dominant and who is submissive . . .

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Acculturation

• It varies with
• Whether the nature of flow is reciprocal or
  nonreciprocal

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All cultures change

• Change can be
• intentional or accidental
• forward or backward looking
• rapid or gradual
• obvious or nearly invisible

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• Acculturation
• Processes

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Acculturation

• Processes during acculturation include
• Substitution
• Replacing one cultural item with another
• Minimal structural change
• E.g., Dani substitution of competitive games and
  events for warfare

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Acculturation

• Processes during acculturation include
• Syncretism
• A blending of cultural elements
• Considerable cultural change
• E.g., Mayan Folk Catholicism
• E.g., Trobriand Cricket

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Acculturation

• Processes during acculturation include
• Addition
• Cultural items are added
• Structural change may or may not occur
• E.g., Yanomamö bananas

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Acculturation

• Processes during acculturation include
• Deculturation (devolution)
• The loss of part of a culture
• E.g., headhunting among the Asmat of New Guinea

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Acculturation

• Processes during acculturation include
• Origination
• Development of new traits to meet the needs of a
  changing situation
• E.g., Amish self-isolation

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Acculturation

• Processes during acculturation include
• Rejection
• Changes may be so rapid that a large number of
  persons cannot accept them, resulting in total
  rejection, rebellion, or revitalization movements
• E.g., The Ghost Dance Movement

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• Results
• of
• Acculturation

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Acculturation

• Results of Acculturation
• Assimilation (merger)
• One culture becomes completely merged into
  another and no longer has a separate identity
• often occurs with a loss of language

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Acculturation

• Results of Acculturation
• Incorporation
• One culture loses autonomy but retains its
  identity as a subculture
• Typical of conquest or slavery situations
• E.g., Cast in India
• E.g., American Irish, Cajun, Gullah

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Acculturation

• Results of Acculturation
• Extinction
• One culture loses its individual members until it
  can no longer function, and members die out or
  join other cultures
• The Shakers may become an example of extinction

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Acculturation

• Results of Acculturation
• Adaptation
• A new structure may develop in dynamic
  equilibrium
• Cultures make adjustments to enhance their
  survival
• E.g., Amish self-isolation

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• Misc. Notes

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Cultural Change

• Early cultural anthropologists took a
  synchronic or one-time view in describing a
  culture with no attention to its past
• More focus on diachronic or across-time
  analysis since the 1970s

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Cultural Change

• Now studies are diachronic
• the analysis of cultures across time
• (Synchronic A one-time view of culture with
  minimal or no attention paid to its past)

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Cultural Change

• Rates of change vary
• Change is inevitable

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Cultural Change

• Traditional Development Anthropology
• an approach to development in which the
  anthropologist accepts the role of helping to
  make development work better by providing
  cultural information to planners
• an option that economists and others realize can
  help make their plans more effective
• What can I do to make this project successful?

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Cultural Change

• Critical Development Anthropology
• an approach to international development in which
  the anthropologist takes on a critical-thinking
  role and asks why and to whose benefit particular
  development policies and programs are pursued
• developed out of the awareness of the socially
  negative impact of many supposedly positive
  development projects
• Is this a good project from the perspective of
  the target population?

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Cultural Change

• Human Development
• a model of change promoted by the United Nations
  that emphasizes improvements in human welfare
  such as health, education, and personal security
  
• improvements in human welfare will lead to
  overall development of the nation

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Cultural Change

• Sustainable Development
• a directed change that involves forms of
  development that are not environmentally
  destructive and are financially supportable by
  the host country or environmentally by the earth
  as a whole

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Cultural Change

• Sociocultural fit
• concept that refers to how well a development
  project meshes with the target culture and
  population

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Cultural Change

• Indigenous People
• people who consider themselves the original
  inhabitants of the territories they occupy
• First Peoples
• most often have lost or are losing their claim to
  ancestral lands

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Cultural Change

• Indigenous People
• the United Nations distinguishes between
• indigenous people
• original inhabitants of the territories they
  occupy
• and minority groups
• E.g., Rom (Gypsies)

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Indigenous Peoples Development
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Indigenous Peoples Development
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Human Rights

• Cultural anthropologists contribute insight from
  different cultures about perceptions of basic
  human rights and may be able to prevent human
  rights abuses in the future

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• People live in
• Multiple Cultural Worlds

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Multiple Cultural Worlds

• class
• race
• ethnicity
• sex/gender
• age
• institutions

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