Culture Change
all culture changes
culture is always changing
culture is a system
change in one piece others have to change
can’t change just one element
how culture changes?
innovations –> something new
e.g. invent light bulbs
changes in when you can work
changes in shift work
(work at night )
changes in cleanliness
diffusion –> borrowed from elsewhere
not something new
someone else invented it
e.g. Canada starts buying lightbulbs
similar culture changing from invention
become more similar to seller
might also find a new use for it
requires creation for electric grid
acculturation –>
adjusted and integrated new thing intoyour culture
your culture changes as a result
How change happens
resist change –>
people generally resist change
“but we’ve always done it this way”
cultural barriers
inappropriate to culture
psychological issues
sometimes culture does resist change
e.g. old order amish with electricity
sometimes creates new culture or new sub-culture
desire change –>
improvement in health
improvement in income
status
positive outcome-labor reduction
colonialism & globalism
nothing new –> always been one group
conquering guys next door
go off to live in a new place
(which may/maynot have people already )
colony –>
community owned by a bigger one
e.g. American colonies
Spanish colonies -e.g. mexico
colonization –> process of aking a colony
esp. taking people over
in modern world dont usually send people
colonialism –>
one country dominates another cultural takeover
text emphasizes government and military
we sell people things , so become dependant run thier economy rather than government
the result oh this in modern world globalization –>
rapid spread of economic /social /culture systems
not always happy about this
people with money come out on top
change runs “downhill”
from people with power money to the rest end result –> world becomes more similar
mcdonalds \ starbucks on every corner
very fast in modern world
veey rapid communication and transport
urbanization –>
people move to cities
always been happening
pushed out of rural areas by industrial agriculture
becomes big business not family oriented
needs fewer workers
“extranneous workers ” move to cities
pulled into cities
drawn by wage employment
mostly guaranteed income, more stable
not always a good thing
cities & individual agriculture both produce more pollution
slums -people without basic needs
use increasing amounts of land
diseases of development –>
urban people come into contact with environments previously on edge of cities
e.g.Lyme disease
example ;
hybrid corn (examples in text)
USDA decided to introduce a new kinds of corn to a community
send an agent familiar with local cultural
meet with farmers
everyone agrees new corn is better
yields more corn/acre for same investment
sell more corn, make more money
buy more things
initially –> great success
farmers grew corn satisfied with results
later –> stopped growing the new corn
new corn was different
people didn’t like to eat it, cook with it
next step –>
grow some old corn for themselves
grow some new corn for animals / market
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