ANTHRO 2A Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Culture Change, Cultural Relativism, Ethnocentrism
Document Summary
Culture is patterned: culture is mostly integrated, that traits or elements making up culture is not random but are adjusted to be consistent with one another, culture must be integrated for psychological reasons. Ideas of culture are stored in people"s brains. Innovations that are technologically superior are not adopted fast because of costs and benefits: for large scale industries, it is costly. Diffusion: which cultural elements are borrowed from another society and incorporated into culture of recipient group, allows to avoid mistakes/stages, pattens, patterns of diffusion, direct contact - through neighboring societies. 2: stimulus diffusion - knowledge of trait belonging to another culture. Revolution: the most drastic and rapid way a culture can change, some rebellions do not always bring changewhy, causes of revolutions, loss of prestige of established authority, threat to recent economic improvement. 3: loss of support of intellectual class. Indecisiveness of government: the outcome of revolution is worse, new ruling is more restrictive and repressive than before.
