Bateson - 1935 - 199. Culture Contact and Schismogenesis
Bateson - 1935 - 199. Culture Contact and Schismogenesis
Bateson - 1935 - 199. Culture Contact and Schismogenesis
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December, 1935.] MAN [No. 199
behaviour, or for supplying the individuals with food.2 From this exhaustive demonstration we
must expect that any single trait of a culture will prove on examination to be not simply economic
or religious or structural, but to partake of all these qualities according to the point of view from which
we look at it. If this be true of a culture seen in synchronic section, then it must also apply to the
diachronic processes of culture contact and change; and we must expect that for the offering, acceptance
or refusal of every trait there are simultaneous causes of an economic, structural, sexual and religious
nature.
(6) From this it follows that our categories 'religious,' ' economic,' etc., are not real subdivisions
which are present in the cultures which we study, but are merely abstractions which we make for our
own convenience when we set out to describe cultures in words. They are not phenomena present
in culture, but are labels for various points of view which we adopt in our studies. In handling such
abstractions we must be careful to avoid Whitehead's " fallacy of misplaced concreteness," a fallacy
into which, for example, the Marxian historians fall when they maintain that economic ' phenomena'
are ' primary.'
With this preamble, we may now consider an alternative scheme for the study of contact
phenomena.
(7) Scope of the inquiry.-I suggest that we should consider under the head of ' culture contact'
not only those cases in which the contact occurs between two communities with different cultures and
results in profound disturbance of the culture of one or both groups; but also cases of contact within
a single community. In these cases the contact is between differentiated groups of individuals, e.g.,
between the sexes, between old and young, between aristocracy and plebs, between clans, etc., groups
which live together in approximate equilibrium. I would even extend the idea of ' contact ' so widely
as to include those processes whereby a child is moulded and trained to fit the culture into which he
was born,3 but for the present we may confine ourselves to contacts between groups of individuals,
with different cultural norms of behaviour in each group.
(8) If we consider the possible end of the drastic disturbances which follow contacts between
profoundly different communities, we see that the changes must theoretically result in one or other of
the following patterns:
(a) the complete fusion of the originally different groups,
(b) the elimination of one or both groups,
(c) the persistence of both groups in dynamic equilibrium within one major community.
(9) My purpose in extending the idea of contact to cover the conditions of differentiation inside a
single culture is to use our knowledge of these quiescent states to throw light upon the factors which
are at work in states of disequilibrium. It may be easy to obtain a knowledge of the factors from
2 Cf. Malinowski, Sexual Life and Crime and Custom; institutions and must expect to find a great deal of over-
A. I. Richards, Hunger and Work. This question of the lapping between various institutions.
subdivision of a culture into 'institutions' is not quite An analogous fallacy occurs in psychology, and con-
as simple as I have indicated; and, in spite of their own sists in regarding behaviour as classifiable according to
works, I believe that the London School still adheres the impulses which inspire it, e.g., into such categories
to a theory that some such division is practicable. It is as self-protective, assertive, sexual, acquisitive, etc.
likely that confusion arises from the fact that certain Here, too, confusion results from the fact that not only
native peoples-perhaps all, but in any case those of the psychologist, but also the individual studied, is
Western Europe-actually think that their culture is so prone to think in terms of these categories. The psycho-
subdivided. Various cultural phenomena also contribute logists would do well to accept the probability that every
something towards such a subdivision, e.g., (a) the bit of behaviour is-at least in a well integrated individual
division of labour and differentiation of norms of be- -simultaneously relevant to all these abstractions.
haviour between different groups of individuals in the 3 The present scheme is oriented towards the study
same community, and (b) an emphasis, present in certain of social rather than psychological processes, but a
cultures, upon the subdivisions of place and time upon closely analogous scheme might be constructed for the
which behaviour is ordered. These phenomena lead to study of psychopathology. Here the idea of 'contact'
the possibility, in such cultures, of dubbing all behaviour would be studied, especially in the contexts of the
which, for example, takes place in church between moulding of the individual, and the processes of schismo-
11.30 and 12.30 on Sundays as 'religious.' But even in genesis would be seen to play an important part not only
the study of such cultures the anthropologist must look in accentuating the maladjustments of the deviant, but
with some suspicion upon his classification of traits into also in assimilating the normal individual to his group.
[ 179 1
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No. 199] MAN [December, 1935.
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December, 1935.] MAN [No. 199
4 Cf. Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament, 1935. tionship between the sexes is complementary, but on
Of the communities described in this book, the Arapesh rather different lines from that of the Chambuli. I hope
and the Mundugumor have a preponderantly symmetrical shortly to publish a book on the Iatmul with sketches
relationship between the sexes, while the Tchambuli of their culture from the points of view (a), (b) and (e)
have a complementary relationship. Among the latmul, outlined in paragraph 10.
a tribe in the same area, which I have studied, the rela-
[ 181 ]
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No. 199] MAN [December, 1935.
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December, 1935.] MAN [Nos. 199-200
former reciprocal commercial behaviour.5 On the other hand, if we consider the effects of comple-
mentary schismogenesis upon the reciprocal behaviour patterns, we see that one-half of the reciprocal
pattern is liable to lapse. -Where formerly both groups exhibited both X and Y, a system gradually
evolves in which one of the groups exhibits only X, while the other exhibits only Y. In fact, behaviour
which was formerly reciprocal is reduced to a typical complementary pattern and is likely after that to
contribute to the complementary schismogenesis.
(d) It is certain that either type of schismogenesis between two groups can be checked by factors
which unite the two groups either in loyalty or opposition to some outside element. Such an outside
element may be either a symbolic individual, an enemy people or some quite impersonal circumstance
-the lion will lie down with the lamb if only it rain hard enough. But it must be noted that where
the outside element is a person or group of persons, the relationship of the combined groups A and B
to the outside group will always be itself a potentially schismogenic relationship of one or the other
type. Examination of multiple systems of this kind is badly needed and especially we need to know
more about the systems (e.g., military hierarchies) in which the distortion of personality is m
in the middle groups of the hierarchy by permitting the individuals to exhibit respect and submission
in dealings with higher groups while they exhibit assertiveness and pride in dealing with the lower.
(e) In the case of the European situation, there is one other possibility-a special case of control
by diversion of attention to outside circumstances. It is possible that those responsible for the policy
of classes and nations might become conscious of the processes with which they are playing and
co-operate in an attempt to solve the difficulties. This, however, is not very likely to occur since
anthropology and social psychology lack the prestige necessary to advise; and, without such advice,
governments will continue to react to each other's reactions rather than pay attention to circumstances.
(21) In concluLsion, we may turn to the problems of the administrator faced with a black-white
culture contact. His first task is to decide which of the end results outlined in paragraph 8 is desirable
and possible of attainment. This decision he must make without hypocrisy. If he chooses fusion,
then he must endeavour to contrive every step so as to promote the conditions of consistency which
are outlined (as problems for investigation) in paragraph 10. If he chooses that both groups shall
persist in some form of dynamic equilibrium, then he must contrive to establish a system in which
the possibilities of schismogenesis are properly compensated or balanced against each other. But at
every step in the scheme which I have outlined there are problems which must be studied by trained
students and which when solved will contribute, not only to applied sociology, but to the very basis
of our understanding of human beings in society. GREGORY BATESON.
The Diffusion of the Horse to the Flatheads. By Harry Turney-High, M.A., Ph.D., State
University of Montana.
Introductory Note.-For the benefit of those workers whose fields of consistent endeavour
are distant from North-west United States, the following note of review is offered. The UU
Flatheads are a people of western Montana, speaking a language within the Salishan family, and are of
Plateau type culture.
The people themselves vigorously object to the term Flathead in reference to themselves, although
many other Indians so call them, particularly those to the east. They call themselves the Salish (se * lic
Most of the tribes to the west speaking member languages of the Salishan stock, even as far as
Pacific Ocean, also refer to the Flatheads by some variant of this word.
For many centuries their principal home has been in the Bitter Root Valley of western Montana.
At some time long ago they seem to have migrated from another locale. Teit has published mater
indicating that their original home was east on the Great Plains.' The great majority of my informant
5 In this, as in the other examples given, no attempt 1 Teit, James A., I Salishan Tribes of the Western
is made to consider the schismogenesis from all the Plateaus,' 45th Annual Rept., Bureau of American
points of view outlined in paragraph 10. Thus, inasmuch Ethnology, 1927-1928. Perhaps it is impossible to solve
as the economic aspect of the matter is not here being this question. All that I can say for my own position
considered, the effects of the slump upon the schismo- is that I have lived with the Flatheads for nine years in
genesis are ignored. A complete study would be sub- contrast with Mr. Teit's extremely short visit, and that
divided into separate sections, each treating one of I have used many informants in comparison with Mr.
the aspects of the phenomena. Teit's almost complete reliance on the late Nlichel Revais.
[ 183 ]
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