Part Three: Applying the Anthropological Concept

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Part Three Applying the Anthropological
Concept Chapter 11 Culture Change

• Culture Change
• Process of Culture Change
• How Cultures Change
• How Change is Studied
• Case study Hybrid Corn

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Culture Change Process of Culture Change
The unilineal evolutionary perspective E.B.
Tylor and L.H. Morgan Culture proceeded through
a series of successive stages (savagery,
barbarism, and civilization) Historical
Particularism (Boas) Change through time 1940s
focus in cultural processes.
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Cultural Barriers to Change
Different cultural values and attitudes are
important barriers to change, including fatalis
tic outlooks (Everyone dies what will be will
be.) tradition (This is the way my father and his
father tilled the land.) ethnocentrism (We know
more about mother earth than any college-educated
city dweller our way is best.) relative values
(I know motorcycle helmets save lives, but I like
to feel the wind in my hair I acknowledge the
benefits, but I prefer my way.) norms of modesty
(I just could never have a male doctor examine
me I'd die of embarrassment.)
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How Cultures Change
Internal sources- change as a result of
fluctuations, innovations, and inventions
(10) External sources- diffusion (90)
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How Change is Studied
First, researchers study the archaeological
record. Second, researchers study historical
records. Third, researchers collect life
histories. Forth, ethnographic studies are
repeated after a number of years documenting
culture change.
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Case Study Hybrid Corn

• Background-
• A community of Spanish American farmers in the
  southwestern
• United States grew a native variety of corn known
  as Indian corn.
• Yield of the corn was twenty-five bushels per
  acre.
• Soils were fertile, and fertility was maintained
  by the addition of some manure.
• The corn was primarily used to make tortillas, a
  diet staple for the people.
• Corn, in the past, had been ground by hand using
  a mono and metates.
• Currently the grinding was done commercially at a
  local mill.
• Surplus corn, as well as corn stalks, were fed to
  animals.
• Introduction of the Hybrid Corn-
• The local United States Department of Agriculture
  farm extension advisor,
• had worked in the area for several years and was
  familiar with all of the local
• farming practices.
• He felt that the introduction of a hybrid variety
  of disease-resistant high-yield corn would
  benefit the farmers.
• Local leaders of the village acknowledged that
  the traditional seed strain was weak.
• At the meeting a movie of the hybrid corn was
  shown, and they discussed its advantages.
• A demonstration plot of corn was grown near the
  village so that farmers could
• see the increased yield from the hybrid variety
  compared to the local Indian corn.

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• Results-
• The Program started off well.
• 40 out of 80 growers tried the hybrid which
  doubled their production.
• The next planting season sixty farmers grew the
  new hybrid.
• The extension agent felt that the newly
  introduced hybrid corn was a success.
• Following year only thirty farmers planted the
  hybrid variety.
• By the next year the number of farmers planting
  the new hybrid had dropped to three.
• Everyone else was again growing the traditional
  Indian corn no diffusion of the hybrid
• variety to any surrounding villages.
• None of the farmers reported any problems with
  growing the new, hybrid corn.
• They were pleased with the higher yields. There
  was a market for the surplus.
• There had been no difficulty in obtaining the
  seed to plant.
• Farmers even indicated that the Indian corn was
  clearly a weaker variety.
• Unanticipated Barriers-
• The farmers wives did not like the new corn.
• They had complained that the hybrid did not have
  the proper texture.
• It made poor tortillas that did not hang together
  well.
• They did not like the color of the tortillas that
  were produced from the hybrid corn flour

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Faces of Culture Culture Change
Look for and answer the following Define
modernization and list four subprocesses which
take place in this kind of culture change. Why
is this term unsatisfactory?