THEORIES OF CONTINUITY

AND CHANGESociety and Culture

HSCCore

INTRODUCTION

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. Colonialism2. 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.

THEORY AND HISTORY 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.

EARLY THEORETICAL IDEAS 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.

EARLY THEORETICAL IDEAS Evolutionists.

Largely ‘armchair’ social researchers Heavily influenced by ethnocentric values of the

colonial era and applying a scientific approach to investigating societies.

Key people:o 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 The evolutionist assumed the European societies were superior to others supported the colonial powers views.

EARLY THEORETICAL IDEAS 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 Franz Boas (1858 – 1942)o Margaret mead (1901 – 1978)

o They looked inside to describe a culture (‘emic’ rather than ‘etic’ view)

o Their subjective approach effectively discarded the idea that societies could be studied scientifically.

o They also practiced cultural relativism, meaning that beliefs and behaviour can only be understood in a particular cultural context.

o Some of these ideas can be found in post-modernism theory.

EARLY THEORETICAL IDEAS2. Structural functionalism, from Britain. Held the

view that social life was orderly and followed a pattern and could be studied scientifically.

Key people :o Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917)o 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.

EARLY THEORETICAL IDEAS 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 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.

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORYApproach Approach applied to

theoryMaterialismExplains human life in terms of tangible features such as technology, management of resources

• 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)

IdealismThe 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.)

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY

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-centredAgency, 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’).

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY

Approach Approach applied to theory

Structure-centredSocial structure i.e. Institutions (eg family, the law) constrain the actions of people and determine how society operates.

Functionalism (social action had little effect on social structure)

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.

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY

Approach Approach applied to theory

ParticularismSociety and culture can be understood according to their specific social context .

•Symbolic anthropology (emphasises ‘local knowledge’)•Historical particularism (focuses on each culture being unique)

UniversalisticSociety and culture can best be understood by examining general aspects of life that are common to all societies.

Structuralism (explains society as being organised like the human mind, which is common to every human)

Critical evaluation:Various aspects of any society can be explained in either particularistic or universalistic terms, depending on their nature.

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY

Approach Approach applied to theory

SychronicExplains society in terms of the relationships between aspects of society and culture as a specific point in time.

•Social action/transactions (little attention paid to historical matters)

DiachronicExplains 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.

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORYApproach Approach applied to

theoryCohesionThe need for solidarity, stability and consensus explains how society is maintained.

•Functionalism (societies are essentially stable because institutions complement each other, work together)

ConflictSocieties 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.

APPROACHES AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORYApproach Approach applied to

theoryPositivistSocial research is approached scientifically, uncovering a pre-existing reality about the way society works.

•Cultural ecology (generalises about the impact of the environment on how society operates)

InterpretivistEthnographic research constructs a reality through the encounters of the researchers and their subjects

•Feminism (life histories and narratives give voice to people)•Postmodernism (studies should be polyvocal, ie have multiple authors, including the anthropologists, research subjects, informants)

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?

MORE RECENT THEORIES 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.

CULTURAL ECOLOGY Historical background:

From evolutionism, states that societies develop along different lines, not unilinear, emerged during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Approaches: Materialism, diachronic, structure-centred, universalistic (etica)

Key people: Marvin Harris, Julian Steward

Essential features: 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:

Human groups continuously adapt to changing conditions as the balance between environmental, technological and economic conditions varies.

Application to a society: 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).

TRANSACTIONALISM (SOCIAL ACTION) Historical background:

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.

Apporaches: Materialism, synchronic, agency-centred, universalistic, interpretivist.

Key people: F.G. Bailey, Jeremy Boissevain, Fredrik Barth, Andrew Strathern.

Essential features: 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:

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: 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.

STRUCTURALISM Historical background:

Influenced by Boas, a historical particularist, who thought that people developed knowledge as a way of managing emotions and new information.

Approaches: Ideaism, sychronic, structure-centred, universalistic (etic0 interpretivist.

Key people: Claude Levi-Strauss, who was the most highly regarded anthropologist of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Essential features: 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: 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.

FEMINISM

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:

• 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.

Application to a society:

• 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.

SYMBOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY/INTERPRETIVISM Historical background:

• 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.

Approaches:• Idealism, synchronic, agency-centered, particularistic (emic) intertretivist.

Key people:• Clifford Geertz (1926 – 2006)

Essential features:• 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:

• In Bali, it was noted that traditional aristocracy (regional rulers) were a catalyst for change because they embraced western-style 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.

POSTMODERNISM Historical background:

• Developed in early 1980’s, growing out of the symbolic, interpretive approach of Clifford Geertz. One of the currently accepted theoretical approaches.

• Approaches:• Idealism and materialism, largely synchronic and agency-centred, particularist (emic), but within a universalistic framework.

• Key people:• 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;• 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 non-monetary 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.

BOURDIEU’S THEORY OF PRACTICE Historical background:

• 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.

• Approaches:• Idealism and materialism, synchronic, both agency-centred and structure-centred, universalistic (both emic and etic)

• Key people:• Pierre Bourdieu (1930 – 2002)

• Essential features:• 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:• 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.

CONCLUSION 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Howitt, B. And Julian, R., Society and

Culture, Heinemann, Second Edition, Sydney, 2009.