Cultural change
Lecture for the course
General Anthropology II
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Bi7879
27/03/2022
Image: Macondo by Luisa Rivera (Source:
https://www.luisarivera.cl/artwork/)
What is change?
Beyond “chronology”
Beyond “evolution”
People participation in
social change
Diachronic and
synchronic dimensionsImage: Ailton Krenak painting his face during the Brazilian Constituent
Assemblyin 1987 (source: https://revistaesquinas.casperlibero.edu.br)
The myth of atemporal culture
Western observers described “others”
as immobile and static
Evolutionism: other societies as survival
of previous stages of European history
Diffusionism: search for “cultural areas”
and common traits
“Denial of coevaleness”*: not
recognizing to others the
contemporaneity with the “West”
*Fabian, Johannes. 2014. Time and the Other: How Anthropology
Makes Its Object. New York: Columbia University Press.
Time and history as a
methodological question
Historicist approach: observing the “present”
through the influences of the “past”
Nomologic approach: observing regularities and
universal trends despite historical differences
Attention: not absolute opposite, but as oscillating
emphasis (change and continuity)!
i.e.: Gluckman and the study of how social tensions
and transformation in social organization from
“tribal” to “urban” life in the Copperbelt region*
Image: station (source:
https://www.theasa.org/networks/time)
*See: Gluckman, Max. 1940. Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand.
Bantu Studies 14(1): 1–30.
“Hot” and “cold” societies
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1961)*
Specific temporalities vs evolution (all
societies are in history)
Not real but yes analytical division
Hot societies: emphasis on change
and low social cohesion
Cold societies: emphasis on
permanence and high social cohesion Image: Brno Augustine Abbey Library (Source:
https://mendelmuseum.muni.cz/en/tours/augustinian-abbey)
*Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1961. Entretiens avec Claude LéviStrauss
(Edited by Georges Charbonnier). Paris: Plon.
Ethnography of change...
Not growth or evolution (not
immanent, natural or cumulative)
“Mingled facts of persistence and
change”*
From macro to micro in change
analysis: ethnography of people
experiences of “changes”
*Nisbet, Robert A. 1969. Social Change and History: Aspects of
the Western Theory of Development. New York: Oxford University
Press. pp. 3.
Image: “Technology 2020” by Mikhail Denishchenko
(source: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-
image.php?image=320340&picture=technology-2020)
...
“to describe life as it is lived and
experiences, by a people,
somewhere, sometime”*
Attention to the different scales of
analysis: global and local
i.e.: Agricultural College and
Secondary Agricultural School
implementing “precision
agriculture” in Czech
*Ingold, Tim. 2017. “Anthropology contra Ethnography.” HAU:
Journal of Ethnographic Theory 7, no. 1: 21–26.
Image: Precision Agriculture in Czech (source:
https://europea.org/the-czech-agricultural-school-is-ready-to-
educate-students-in-the-field-of-precision-agriculture/)
Social and cultural changes
Social: changes in relations
and institutions (i.e. family,
economy, politics, etc.)
Cultural: changes in
ideologies, technologies
and beliefs
Not separated but
alternative emphasis
Image: Capitol Invasion (source:
https://mashable.com/article/antifa-conspiracies-trump-mob-
january-6-capitol-debunk)
The scale of change
Frederick Barth: the
metaphor of the
aquarium*
Change as an ongoing
process and as a result
of an event
Image: Genova aquarium (source:
https://www.acquariodigenova.it/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/i
mage004.jpg)
*Barth, Fredrik. 1967. On the Study of Social Change. American
Anthropologist 69(6): 661-669.
First example:
Change in
anthropological
paradigms:
Post-evolutionism
Post-structuralism
Post-modernism
Post-... Image: Esher House of Stairs, 1951 (source:
https://ely135.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/houseofstairslg11.jpg)
Second example:
Ideas of modernity:
Post-socialist
Post-conflict
Post-apartheid
Post-colonialism
Post-...
Image: Disparity in Brazil (source: https://brasilitalia-
doiscoracoes.blogspot.com/2012/01/il-brasile-e-il-2-paese-con-piu.html)
From “post” to “action”
Modernization
Individualization
Democratization
Globalization
...a(c)tion
Shift from result to
process
Image: India (source:
https://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=3877)
Naming changes
Etic vs. emic terminologies
(categories)
Authority in naming changes:
evolution, rupture, transition,
development, revolution, etc.
Reflexivity (academics as
“experts”)
Image: Brněnský orloj (source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brno_astronomical
_clock)
“categories and
assumptions of
improvement are still
with us everywhere. We
imagine their objects on
a daily basis:
democracy, growth,
science, hope”*
*Tsing, Anna L. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World:
On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton and
Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 20-21.
Image: Popular protests in Yemen in 2011 (source:
https://www.repubblica.it/)
Acceleration?
Image: Rock art in Colombian Amazon (source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55172063)
Image: Animal emojis (source:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ae38mj/emojis-reveal-our-bias-
toward-mammals)
How changes happen?
How does a new feature
arise?
- innovation (emergence of
new technology and/or
ideas)
- diffusion (acquisition from
other people)
Image: Mesoamerican toys with wheels (source:
https://www.mesoweb.com/mpa/nationalmuseum/veracruz1.html)
Individuals or groups
Is the novelty public/private?
Is the novelty aimed at something or
casual?
How the novelty affect the
social/cultural experience?
i.e. plastic: 1861,Alexander Parkes
from cellulose nitrate; 1912, Fritz
Klatte and PVC; 1954, Giulio Natta
and Polietilene; etc...
Image: Plastic trash island (source: https://phys.org/news/2017-
11-trash-islands-central-america-ocean.html)
Acculturation and enculturation
Acculturation: the process
of influences taking place
in the contact between
diverse groups
Enculturation: the process
of socialization of the
individuals in a group
Image: venetian school at the beginning of ‘900 (source:
https://www.gildavenezia.it/la-scuola-di-una-volta/)
Acculturation and power relations
From contacts between
“cultures” and exchange of
traits, knowledges, etc.
Voluntary or forced
Direct: conquest, colonization,
etc.
Indirect: soft power, indirect
rule, etc.
Image: Macha Mission School, Zambia, 1910 (source:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37728/37728-h/37728-h.htm)
Back to the life as it is lived...
Change in not uniform or total,
but it articulates diverse
elements from previous and
subsequent patterns
Attention to varied perceptions
of people
Hybridization, reconfiguration,
polyphonic assemblage*
Image: Pražské jaro (source:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-
blog/2018/aug/10/russia-crushes-prague-spring-
czechoslovakia-1968)
*Tsing, Anna L. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On
the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton and Oxford:
Princeton University Press.
Focusing changes
Description of a change via
multiple prolonged fieldworks
Descriptions of change via
ethnographic and archival
materials
Attention to metanarratives on
change (theories, ideologies,
power, etc.)
Attention to situated experiences
Image: traditional and new plantations in Sicily (source:
https://www.siciliaavocado.it)
Multi-temporal changes
Change as the difference
between the past and the
present
Cange also as the result of
the future on the present:
anticipation, expectation,
speculation, potentiality,
hope, destiny*
*Bryant, Rebecca and Kight, Daniel. 2019. The Anthropology
of the Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Image: Fridays for future by Emmanuel Dunand (source:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-
take-part-in-a-march-for-the-environment-and-the-news-
photo/1126526949)
Please think about the personal and collective
experience of cultural changes in Brno and Czech
Republic…
paride_bollettin@msn.com