Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation The Social Science Research Council Summer

Seminar on Acculturation, 1953

Source: American Anthropologist , Dec., 1954, New Series, Vol. 56, No. 6, Part 1 (Dec.,
1954), pp. 973-1000
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/664755

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/664755?seq=1&cid=pdf-
reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Anthropological Association and Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to American Anthropologist

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation
The Social Science Research Council Summer
Seminar on Acculturation, 1953*

T HE PHENOMENA of acculturation continue to command wide interest

among anthropologists and, to some extent, among sociologists and psy-
chologists. Published literature on acculturation is accumulating rapidly (Kees-
ing 1953); each year new research and applied programs are being formulated
for further study of the phenomena and for possible application of the knowl-
edge to practical affairs; additional courses on the subject are being added to
academic curricula. There appears to be agreement that careful analysis of ac-
culturation situations and sequences offers some of our best opportunities for
understanding cultural dynamics. Yet it is evident that the collection of em-
pirical materials on acculturation proceeds faster than theoretical attempts to
order and codify the central concepts which will make the studies yield maxi-
mum results. This theoretical lag is undoubtedly related to (a) the unusually
rapid expansion and proliferation of empirical studies of acculturation; (b) the
shift in emphasis from diachronic, cultural history studies to synchronic func-
tional studies, with a corresponding emphasis upon the general concept of
structure and a relative neglect of the concept of process; and (c) the fact that
interest in acculturation-in the United States at least-grew out of the earlier
concern with salvaging "memory" cultures. This last tendency has fostered a
predominant concern with the postcontact ethnography of "receptor" cul-
tures, while the "donor" tacitly receives the status of an independent variable.
With this estimate as a background, a few actively interested anthropolo-
gists proposed to the Social Science Research Council that one of its interuni-
versity summer research seminars be devoted to acculturation problems. The
seminar was held during July and August of 1953 at Stanford University, and
four of the participants-three anthropologists (Siegel, Vogt, and Watson) and
one sociologist (Broom)-are the authors of this article. We are especially in-
debted to the fifth member of the seminar, Homer Barnett, who contributed
importantly to the discussions and to this paper, although he has not joined us
in its final preparation. The discussions during the eight-week period ranged
widely and informally over the field of culture change. The efforts in this paper
follow other attempts to synthesize and codify research and theory in the field
of acculturation (Thurnwald 1932; Bateson 1935; Redfield, Linton, and Her-
skovits 1936; Herskovits 1938; Mair 1938; Linton 1940; Malinowski 1945;
Hallowell 1945; Ramos 1947; Moore 1951; Beals 1953; Wax Ms.). It should
be emphasized that the paper is intended to be egploratory and suggestive,
rather than conclusive and definitive. It takes previous work into account but

* Members of the Seminar in alphabetical order: H. G. Barnett, University of Oregon, Leon-

ard Broom, University of California (Los Angeles), Bernard J. Siegel, Stanford University, Evon Z.
Vogt, Harvard University, and James B. Watson, Washington University (St. Louis).

973

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
974 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
it does not purport to be a review of our state of k
culturation. Instead, it represents the authors'
proach to the study of cultural change as it is g
During the course of the seminar the authors benef
J. B. Casagrande, A. L. Kroeber, G. Bateson, G. D
ficient service of Rose Wax, the rapporteur. We also
tude to the Social Science Research Council for t
the seminar.
DELINEATION OF THE PROBLEM

For the purposes of the formulation under consideration, ac

be defined as culture change that is initiated by the conjunctio
autonomous cultural systems. Acculturative change may b
of direct cultural transmission; it may be derived from noncu
as ecological or demographic modifications induced by an i
it may be delayed, as with internal adjustments following u
of alien traits or patterns; or it may be a reactive adapta
modes of life. Its dynamics can be seen as the selective adaptat
tems, the processes of integration and differentiation, the
velopmental sequences, and the operation of role determinan
factors.
An autonomous cultural system is one which is self-sustaining-that is, it
does not need to be maintained by a complementary, reciprocal, subordinate,
or other indispensable connection with a second system. Such units are sys-
tems because they have their own mutually adjusted and interdependent parts,
and they are autonomous because they do not require another system for their
continued functioning. An autonomous cultural system is what is usually called
"a culture" in the anthropological literature, but the more explicit denotation
at once makes the concept more definitive and delimits the incidence of ac-
culturation as defined. Thus, cultural changes induced by contacts between
ethnic enclaves and their encompassing societies would be definable as accul-
turative, whereas those resulting from the interactions of factions, classes, oc-
cupational groups, or other specialized categories within a single society would
not be so considered. Hence, socialization, urbanization, industrialization, and
secularization are not acculturation processes unless they are cross-culturally
introduced rather than intraculturally developed phenomena.
This delimitation of the field is dictated by strategic considerations. For un-
less the culture concept is construed at some broadly inclusive level (viz., a
tribe) the analyst is ultimately reduced to dealing with particularized "cul-
tures" such as those of families or even individuals. Indeed, the equating of
acculturation with the socialization of the individual seems to us to make ex-
plicit this methodological error. If attention is not centered on the conjunction
of markedly different cultural traditions, the analyst is confronted with effect
too microscopic to yield to existing techniques of analysis. For the present i
would seem to be more fruitful to concentrate upon the conjunction of cultural
differences that are wide and deep.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 975
The unit of analysis in acculturation studies is thus taken to be any
culture as it is carried by its particular society. It is recognized that individ
are empirically the culture bearers and that they are the mediators of any
tural process. Students of culture are, however, concerned with individ
functioning members of a society and with the shared patterns of behavior
stituting a body of customs. Consequently, while it is individuals who c
their habits of doing and believing under the influence of alien forms, it i
body of custom of the society to which they belong that is said to be a
rated.
Our formulation envisages four principal facets of the phenomenon of ac-
culturation: (1) the characterization of the properties of the two or more auton-
omous cultural systems which come into contact; (2) the study of the nature of
the contact situation; (3) the analysis of the conjunctive relations established be-
tween the cultural systems upon contact; and (4) the study of the cultural
processes which flow from the conjunction of the systems. Each of these facets
is treated under a separate heading in this paper and embodies distinctive
theoretical problems which bear upon developments following the meeting of
diverse ways of life. What is said in each section has relevance to other sections
as well.

CULTURAL SYSTEMS

Acculturation theory would be greatly advanced if it were possi

acterize the properties of autonomous systems in a way that would
ful in respect to their behavior under contact conditions. Ideal
possible to specify the effects that one kind of system will have o
such a typological approach is feasible, it must deal with thos
system which are directly relevant to problems of change when c
There are numerous ways in which cultures can be classified,
complex, folk-urban, Apollonian-Dionysian, and so on. While
mies may be important for a study of cultural change, their r
culturation remains to be demonstrated.
In this section we shall explore three variable properties of cultural systems
that appear to affect the course of acculturation: (a) boundary-maintaining
mechanisms which are found in "closed" as opposed to "open" systems; (b) the
relative "rigidity" or "flexibility" of the internal structure of a cultural system;
and (c) the nature and functioning of self-correcting mechanisms in cultural
systems. We do not wish to imply that these are the only variable properties of
cultural systems which affect acculturation. Rather, they are properties which
occurred to us as being relevant, important, and insufficiently analyzed in the
acculturation literature to date.

BOUNDARY-MAINTAINING MECHANISMS

One order of difference among cultural systems which may be objectively

verifiable, common, and therefore significant is variation in their boundary-
maintaining mechanisms. These comprise the techniques and ideologies by

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
976 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
means of which a system limits participation in
nized in-group. Here the relatively "open" society
has admitted diverse immigrants for many years,
"closed" systems of the Southwestern Pueblos whi
sure their own members who do not conform to the
Boundary- aintaining mechanisms appear to inclu
absence ofrdevices by which the knowledge of cus
to in-group members and thus shielded from alien
the whole range of culture is open to inspection by
while in others key customs are carefully guarded f
Some examples of specific boundary-maintainin
operate in a closed system are: ritual initiations i
ceremonies to reintroduce an in-group member to
secret activites for in-group members only; localizin
land; the cultivation of self-defining concepts, su
ism; the posting of territory or the lowering of isol
ignation of contact agents or alien "handlers"; hig
language or dialect; the erection of legal barriers.
All of these devices are widely practiced, but not t
the same purpose. However, their concentration or l
of a closed or resistant system as opposed to an o
contact conditions. A type case which manifests mos
is modern Zuni (Adair and Vogt 1949); an example
the contemporary Palauans (Barnett 1949). Be
closed" typology based upon boundary-maintain
necessary to examine more closely the data we ha
It is possible that some of the proliferation of bo
nisms is a postcontact phenomenon and that close
festation of reactive adaptations.

"FLEXIBLE" VS. "RIGID" SYSTEMS

Another important typological distinction might be based upon the rela

"rigidity" or "flexibility" of the internal structure of a cultural sys
tight or rigid interrelatedness-or its opposite-may prevail either wit
spect to the total value structure of a society or with respect primarily or
to its social structure. Inclusiveness, precision, articulation, and range of va
tion might be utilized as yardsticks of integration in social or in over-a
configurations: multiple or single avenues to prestige or other goals, ambig
vs. clearly defined interpersonal relations, authoritarian vs. equalitarian
controls, ascribed vs. achieved statuses, prescribed vs. situationally d
activities, specified vs. alternative patterns of conduct, and so forth. Th
of tight integration, on the social side at least, is probably achieved in syst
which sanction autocratic powers in one or a few elite roles, such as ab
monarchies, theocracies, and gerontocracies. The Zulu (Gluckman 1940b
Pueblos (Eggan 1950), the Australians (Warner 1937), and sects such a

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 977
Hutterites (Eaton 1952), and the Amish (Kollmorgen 1942) provide exam
The Ghetto Jews of Eastern Europe (Bienenstok 1950) are a relate
Loosely integrated systems may be illustrated by the Chukchi (Bogora
9), the Siriono (Holmberg 1950), and the Shoshone (Steward 1938).
In itself, degree of integration affords no basis for predicting contact r
tions. If, however, the outlines of a social structure or an underlying value
tem are unequivocal and inflexible previous to contact, they are more likely
be so under challenge from outsiders. Furthermore, if they are of a positiv
invariant nature they will probably be supported by strong rationaliza
and emotional commitments. If, in addition, there are relatively few k
command values in its hierarchy, a system is likely to be rigid and sel
sciously resistant to alteration on contact, since it is already organized
sively probably as a result of external or internal challenges in the pa
here again, as with boundary-maintaining mechanisms, it is important to a
tain whether we are in fact dealing with precontact phenomena.

SELF-CORRECTING MECHANISMS

While boundary-maintaining mechanisms refer to the surface tension at-

tributes of the cultural "organism," self-correcting mechanisms refer to the
ability of the cultural "organism" to shift function and to adapt internally, ir-
respective of its outer protective devices. The analysis of the forces of equilib-
rium within social structures, focusing attention upon their dynamic qualities
and potentialities for variation, is also useful for the study of acculturation.
This conceptual dimension recognizes the overt and covert struggles for power
and position, the divisive tendencies of factionalism, and the centrifugal ten-
sions produced by individual rejection of group expectations. It is assumed that
in most, if not all, systems there is some degree of real or latent conflict, contra-
diction, or opposition of interests between certain segments of a society; even
in groups where there are no major conflicts there is never full assent or con-
formance with respect to ascribed and achieved status and role. All this is an-
other way of saying that no way of life is completely satisfying to all members
of a society; and that the existing reward system will be sufficiently frustrating
to some who, by their challenging attitudes, may threaten the values of the so-
ciety.
Set off against this assumption of disruptive tendencies is the complemen-
tary one which asserts that there must be counterforces at work sufficient at
least to maintain the pattern of a particular social order. These adjustive de-
vices are highly variable depending on the value definitions of the culture. They
includemeasures of social control ranging from the arbitrary use of force to
techniques for insuring the personalization of a social ethic. Some operate to
provide an area of permissiveness in individual role performance. Others set
aside, with varying degrees of approval, occasions and contexts for the relaxa-
tion of restrictive rules of personal conduct, as in tacitly sanctioned acts of ag-
gression or periods of license. Double standards of performance or contradic-
tory estimates of the same behavior are often resolved by the device of com-

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
978 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
partmentalization, that is, by segregating them and
validation. Almost always potential areas of conflict are
tial allocation of rewards that is supported by some
recognized means of recruiting and sustaining leadersh
ment devices might be, they too must be meshed in
be as mutually adjustable as the social system that t
The concept of equilibrium posits neither perfect
immobilized social structure. The balance that it env
the prospect of stresses developing which will call
(MacIver 1937; Myrdal 1944; Parsons 1951). Moreov
entertains the possibility that such a reactive syste
analogue, alters its social base as it attempts to stab
process of adjusting conflicts and differences, comp
new mechanisms devised; and each successive adjust
count not only an initial adjustment but all those follo
ion. Change is therefore implicit in the notion of equil
it is internally governed change.
It would appear that there are differences among
equilibrium scale, but if this conceptual dimension i
must be some criteria for ascertaining such difference
ing or of obligation-rejection should afford some meas
should the frequency of unsettled disputes and fact
dence of withdrawal from social situations or of migra
is possible, as it once seems to have been in Polynesia, w
of disequilibrium. Under some conditions the frequ
conduct are changed would serve the same purpose,
also be an evidence of flexibility in the adjustment
It is suggested that if equilibrium is a fruitful dimen
a cultural system it might also be useful in ascertai
of the system. It is supposed that a system off bala
outside influences than one under better control of its own internal forces
(Gluckman 1940a).
The importance of our three typological distinctions may be pointed up
suggesting that "hard-shelled, vertebrate" cultural systems-that is, cultur
with many boundary-maintaining mechanisms and with "rigid" internal struc-
tures-whose self-correcting mechanisms are functioning smoothly may
found to be least susceptible to change in acculturation. On the other han
"soft-shelled, invertebrate" cultural systems-that is, cultures with few or
boundary-maintaining mechanisms and with "flexible" internal structur
which are off balance, or in a state of disequilibrium, are likely to be most sus
ceptible to change in acculturation. These biological analogies are obvious
meant only to be suggestive. Furthermore, it is clear that such an "outrage
hypothesis" would require modification in two directions: (1) under cert
conditions of extreme acculturation pressure the "hard-shelled vertebrat
may suddenly crack up completely; and (2) under other conditions it see

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 979
possible for the "soft-shelled, invertebrate" cultures to "ingest" great
ties of alien cultural material and still preserve many of their basic p
and values. But perhaps we have said enough to indicate the kinds o
potheses that can be derived from this facet of our formulation.

THE CONTACT SITUATION

A comprehensive study of acculturation must include an ass

those noncultural and nonsocial phenomena that provide the con
and establish certain limits of cultural adaptation. The most im
these are the ecological context and the demographic character
respective peoples.

ECOLOGY

Ecology is significant to the extent to which the respective cultures are

hinged to a specific environment and the extent to which that environment af-
fects the acculturational setting. For example, the Australian Aborigine's ac-
commodation to desert Australia was not improved by European culture. Wes-
tern influence was very largely that of dislocation, and Western success in mas-
tering the desert until now has not materially exceeded the Aborigine's. This
is one of the relatively rare instances where an environment which comprised
a situation of "closed resources" for the aboriginal population was also closed
for the emissaries of Western culture. Additional examples may be found in
other extreme environments such as the tropical rain forest and the circum-
polar zone (Forde 1934; Kroeber 1939; Price 1939; Mills 1942; Bates 1952).
The far more common type of situation finds Western agents impinging on an
area in which the indigenous peoples have "closed resources" but in which the
environment affords "open resources" for Western technology (Nieboer 1900).
This circumstance sets the stage for the relatively rapid modification of abo-
riginal technology, and the fact that this has happened repeatedly may have a
bearing on the generalization that material culture forms are more amenable to
change than are more purely symbolic forms.
Full assessment of the significance of ecological factors requires analysis of
the main types of possible relationships to resources at each pertinent techno-
logical level. Close study of the relationship between ecology and acculturation
would no doubt reveal that rather small and particular phenomena from the
ecological standpoint are sometimes of major concern for acculturation re-
search. A heavy dependence on some single resource which looms large in the
mythology and ceremony of a people immediately comes to mind. On the other
hand, the changes induced by acculturation may have decisive effects on the
character of the environment and may thus set new limits on the possible rela-
tionships between man and nature. That is, the environment may be so modi-
fied as to foreclose certain kinds of cultural retrenchment even if the earlier
modes of adaptation are still well remembered. The impact of domestic ani-
mals on the seed resources of the Basin-Plateau (Steward 1938) and the de-
struction of the buffalo on the Great Plains are cases in point.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 980 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
DEMOGRAPHY

A variety of demographic phenomena appear to be relevant to the study of

acculturation. The relative sizes of contacting populations and the demo-
graphic characteristics of their agents clearly affect the pattern and degree of
the influence they exert. If the representatives of the societies are not adequate
in numbers or lack other demographic attributes necessary to maintain or re-
produce an operating social order, the acculturation situation will thereby be
modified in manifold ways. For example, in the impingement of Western civili-
zation on aboriginal peoples, the bearers of Western civilization in early stages
are mature males. This provides an arbitrary delimitation and a very high de-
gree of structuring of the role network. Or, to take a more specific instance, the
impingement of masculine frontier culture on an aboriginal population with
matrilineal exogamous clans will have a smaller theoretical effect on the native
kinship system than if the system were patrilineal (Spoehr 1947). The demo-
graphic fact is the sex imbalance of the frontier; the cultural fact, limiting the
possibilities of adjustment, is the kinship system. The fact that masculine
agents are the ones who employ the instruments of their culture may also ex-
plain to some extent why material culture changes first.
Another way in which population factors bear on acculturation or vice
versa may be noted in the specialized demographic relations between peoples
whereby personnel from one system are incorporated in the other. Adoption,
or the recruitment or enslavement of a people for labor, military, or sexual pur-
poses have two significant effects (Siegel 1945). First, the character of intercul-
tural contact is sharply structured. Second, the integrity of the role network
within each culture is seriously affected by the selective removal or addition of
personnel in certain age-sex categories.
CONJUNCTIVE RELATIONS

After the properties of the two or more cultural systems which come into
contact have been studied and the ecological and demographic aspects of the
contact situation have been analyzed, our formulation calls for an examina-
tion of the nature of the conjunctive relations that are established between the
systems. The patterns of these conjunctive relations may be conceptualized as
intercultural role networks that not only establish the framework of contact
but also provide the Channels through which the content of one cultural system
must be communicated and transmitted to the other (e.g., Fortes 1936; Ekvall
1939; Gluckman 1940a; Mandelbaum 1941; Honigmann 1952).
INTERCULTURAL ROLES

The significance of this contact design is evident when the observable facts
of acculturation are taken into account. Cultures do not meet, but people who
are their carriers do. As carriers of traditions such contacting individuals never
know their entire cultures and never convey all they know of them to one an-
other. That part of their cultural inventory which they do transmit is condi-
tioned primarily by their reasons for making the contact, that is, by the cul-

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 981
tural concomitants of the role that they assume in dealing with an alien gr
They may adopt a complex but limited number of roles, so that unless ther
full representation on both sides there can be opportunity for only a p
intercultural transfer.
Like their internal counterparts, intercultural roles may be conceptu
as constellations of behaviors that are appropriate to particular situat
Since roles presuppose a social context, each one calls for its complem
either is to be sustained. In an intercultural system, such reciprocal beh
are paired cross-culturally with the performance of an act by a member of
autonomous system evoking a supporting response from some member
other. Behind each act in a paired set lies a complex of beliefs and attit
and together the pair constitutes a cross-cultural unit of mutually unde
expectations founded upon a definition of reciprocal rights and obligatio
with role playing within the two contacting cultures, that which develo
terculturally requires not only the alignment of participants in it but
agreement, in this instance arrived at across cultural boundaries, upo
meaning and importance. Stated otherwise, the intercultural role netw
made up of shared and valued behaviors as well as a structuring of relations
between contacting agents of the two systems.
Intercultural role playing reflects the interest areas that are shared b
two groups in contact, whether attention to these areas is cultivated o
forced by unilateral demands or whether the areas represent a converge
aspirations or needs. Usually role playing mirrors one group's image of itsel
relation to the other. Consequently, among other generalized componen
contains an assertion of intergroup status and a definition of intergroup po
relationships. In addition to such generalized elements, particular role
mand specific purposes and entail specific expectations. In the expans
western European culture, the roles of the administrator, the entrepr
and the missionary have established a stereotype in accordance with the
cipal incentives activating the expansion. Important subsidiary roles
movement have been those of the educator and the physician. At the
time, going along with this master plan for contact, there have been innum
ble subordinate or incidental projections of occidental culture as its represen
tives have individually varied in background, capacity, and purpose.
Non-Western contacts naturally have other role characteristics, as i
denced by Kula trading partnerships (Malinowski 1922), Tungus-C
family visits (Lindgren 1938), and Zuni-Navaho "guest-friend" relatio
(Vogt 1951). To provide a concrete illustration of the social structural c
teristics and of the culturally patterned ways in which contact within the
cultural role network takes place, let us examine this Zuni-Navaho re
ship. Although Navahos and Zunis have been in contact for at least 100
the total sociocultural systems have never been brought into conjunc
Rather the contact appears to have occurred in terms of a specifiable set of
tercultural role relationships, one of the most important being the "
friend" relationship. Each Navaho family which visits Zuni (during larg

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
982 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
monials such as the Shalako, and at other times) has on
whom they regard as "friends." When the Navahos en
variably go to the house of their "friends" where the
gifts of mutton, rugs, or jewelry. The Zuni family is exp
the Navaho family during its stay and to return gifts
or hay when the Navahos leave. The customary modes of
patterned: there is handshaking, inquiries about the st
on both sides, the communication usually takes place i
Zuni, etc. At some other time during the year, the Zuni
visit by going to the hogans of its Navaho friends. Th
it is expected that they will be housed and fed and be giv
they leave. These relationships are often enduring on
through two or more generations. There are also mech
relationship in the event that one of the parties fails to
pected gifts. Nothing is said at the time, but the foll
which came out on the short end of the deal will simply
or retaliate by failing to bring gifts. The relationsh
cross-cultural pattern of mutual hospitality and reciproc
is involved in the gift exchanges.

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

The architecture of the intercultural role network also provides communica-

tion and transmission lines between the two contacting cultures, and it or-
ganizes the acculturative flow between the two. It is at once a profile of contact-
ing cultures and a communication system contributing to their modification.
Intercultural communication may be specifically or diffusely channeled.
Specificity in this sense has to do with whether a cross-cultural message appro-
priately applies to any member or just to certain members of a receiving group.
Extremely diffuse are forms of dominance, discrimination, fear, respect, or ap-
probation which uniformly engage most members of one group vis-A-vis the
other. Or an alien administrator may rule for all or for a great many individuals
in the group under his jurisdiction. More specific directives are those restricted
to a particular set of roles, as with those pertaining to the employer-employee
relationship. In another sense, a dominant role, such as that of an administra-
tor, may be the central channel for the controlling cultural directives focused
by one society upon another. Such influences, furthermore, may be funneled
through a single counterpart, such as a headman, in the recipient group. To
the extent that cultural representations of either side are thus channeled
through a few contact specialists, the communication for most of the group's
members is restricted in advance. Such contact specialists are comparable to
consuls in foreign service, and the very concept of "external relations" sug-
gests the existence of a high degree of bicultural autonomy and the limited ca-
pacity of the system of communication.
An intercultural communication system is a product of purpose and cross-
purpose, and there are also levels of flow in the process of cultural interchange.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 983
The result is a highly selective patterning of contacts. Two components fig
in this complex design, namely, the range of presented fact and the cross-c
tural interpretation of it. That is, no culture presents its full face to the other
and to the facade that is presented cross-culturally meanings are attache
which mayr have little or no relation to their intracultural significance. T
intercultural role structure fixes the framework of communication, but within
this framework the perceptual orientations of the recipients are important de-
terminants of acculturation. Concretely, representatives of one contacting sys-
tem may or may not present a model of its family life, but if they do, the fam
configuration is certain to be refracted by the more or less distorting lens of
tercommunication. A filter of traditional and idiosyncratic perception alw
intervenes between the fact and its alien interpretation.
As in analyzing autonomous systems, one must deal with dysfunction in an
intercultural system. In communication terms this means a discrepancy b
tween the intentions of a sender and the meaning of the message to a receiver
The fact of internal misinterpretation of intentions suggests the hypothe
that the chances for discrepant communication rise with the degree of intercu
tural difference. The apperceptive mass, to mention only an obvious factor
very differently constituted for communicators reared in diverse traditions.
There remains the ever present possibility of qualification or reservation in
the presentation of a cultural fact; the giver of an intercultural message m
intend that it should have its face-value meaning, or he may conceal its r
significance. The labor recruiter may not reveal all the implications of his offe
and the administrator may have covert reasons for reserving a knowledge
the consequences of his dictates.
The recognition that acculturation is very much a matter of range of pres-
entation and of perceptual reality raises the issue of compatibility betw
contacting cultures. The number and character of compatible facets which
system presents to the other may be taken as one measure of its acculturat
potential. When so considered, compatibility must be understood to have refer
ence to selected parts of the systems and not to their whole properties. It
relationship which obtains directly between particular ideological or behavi
sets; only derivatively and descriptively can it be said to pertain to the bound-
ary characteristics, the modes, the structures or the tendencies of the two sys
tems or to characterize the relationship between a specific element in one
such holistic properties of the other. Analysis of the compatibility of systemic
patterns yields useful generalizations on the typological level and provides
basis for predicting acculturative influence. At the same time, systemic co
patibilities are not the data of group or individual experience in culture c
tacts, and operationally agreement and disagreement must be treated on t
level of perception.
Closely related is the factor of cultural relativism and the fact that compat
ibility is an intercultural variable emerging under intracultural controls. N
experiences are organized by each group under the influence of its existing ide
logical and motivational set, and as the set varies so do the possibilities of e

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 984 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
group for assessing sameness and difference between
In short, perceptive reality is the effective mediator
compatibility, and in the context of acculturation it is
tion of the receptor rather than the evaluation of the d
which determines the areas and degrees of intercult
parity.

PROCESSES OF ACCULTURATION

All the evidence leads to the conclusion that any autonomous

tem is in a continuous process of change. The change that is in
tact therefore does not represent a shift from a static to an ac
rather a shift from one sort of change to another. Contact oft
change more adventitiously, more generally, and more rapidly than
forces. The particular effects of a conjunction of two cultures will
antecedent modes of internal change together with the nature of th
tural contact profile and the influences that are communicated thro
work.
The indicated distinction between internally generated and co
lated change invites comparative analysis. It is assumed that ch
herent property of cultural systems; it cannot be assumed that
properties of internal and acculturative change are identical. Det
sons of the characteristics of the two situations should soon disclos
tinctions if, in fact, they do occur.
The processes which flow from the conjunction of two or more
tems are obviously numerous, varied, and complex, and it is ev
need additional concepts to deal with these dynamic phenomen
first deal with fairly specific recurring sequences of events in
(a) intercultural transmission (diffusion), (b) cultural creativity
disintegration, and (d) reactive adaptations. Then we shall take u
of more pervasive and lasting outcomes of acculturation, including
adjustment of two types, fusion and assimilation, and the deve
stabilized pluralism. Finally we shall explore the possibilities o
processual regularities in (a) the differential rates of change found
aspects of culture, and (b) the sequential developments in accult
long time-spans.

INTERCULTURAL TRANSMISSION

One of the obvious invariant processes of acculturation that takes place

through the intercultural networks outlined above is the transmission of cul-
tural materials (objects, traits, or ideas) between the two systems. It may be
as little as the transmission of a steel ax in exchange for furs, or it may be as
much as the transmission of a whole new religious theology, but it always takes
place. The classic concept of "diffusion" applies directly to this transmission
process. In the most general terms we can make two statements about inter-
cultural transmission: (1) that the patterns and values of the receiving culture

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 985
seem to function as selective screens in a manner that results in the enthusias-
tic acceptance of some elements, the firm rejection of other elementsi and (2)
that the elements which are transmitted undergo transformations in the re-
ceiving cultural systems, and may also undergo transformations within the in-
tercultural network while in the process of being transmitted. At any rate,
these transformations are also probably intimately related to the value systems
of receptor cultures. These value systems may be conceptualized as operating
with gyroscope-like qualities; that is, the cultural elaborations of the system
are kept going in certain "directions" and the cultural materials ingested ap-
pear to fall into place within the pre-existing framework. A classic example is
the diffusion of masked dances from the Pueblos (where they are rain ceremo-
nials) to the Navaho (where they have become curing ceremonials) or to the
Western Apache (where they are used to celebrate puberty for girls) (Underhill
1948). Another example is the case of the diffusion of the Sun Dance among the
Plains Indians (Spier 1921).

CULTURAL CREATIVITY

Acculturation is, however, neither a passive nor a colorless absorption. It

is a culture-producing as well as a culture-receiving process. Acculturation,
particularly when not forced, is essentially creative. It is a productive process
even though in consequence there may be a decrease in the number and variety
of pre-existent elements. Abandonment or voluntary loss is compensated for
in the same or some other area of culture; and to the extent that an introduced
element may serve as an alternative to an indigenous one, there is an actual
gain in number and variety. But irrespective of numerical changes, there are
other creative processes which inevitably occur with the incorporation of alien
elements into an autonomous system. The most notable ones have been vari-
ously described as "'reorganizations" (Kroeber 1948), and "reinterpretations"
and "syncretisms" (Herskovits 1948:553-60). "Syncretism" has been recog-
nized in the(identification of African deities with Catholic saints among certain
New World Negroes (Herskovits 1948:553). As other evidence of the creativity
of acculturation, it may be recalled that the very act of copying alien traits en-
tails some modification of them since no copy is a perfect reproduction.
These considerations suggest that the conjunction of differences in culture
contact provides a kind of catalyst for cultural creativity (Barnett 1953:46-56
Beals 1953:636). Much has been made of the melancholy process of cultural
disintegration, often with the implicit value assumption on the part of the
anthropologist that the older aboriginal patterns are good and what emerges in
the contact situation is bad. Comparative study which is also sensitive to the
generation of new and qualitatively different patterns may add significantly to
our knowledge of cultural transformation and growth. The design for such re-
search enterprises requires more than the cataloguing of the provenience of the
cultural elements which form the new patterns. It should also involve a clos
study of the steps which lead to the creation of new patterns and the enrich-
ment of old.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
986 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
CULTURAL DISINTEGRATION

Although the incorporation of new traits is essentially a creative process it

may have destructive consequences for the borrowing culture as an autono-
mous system. This result is clearly a possibility if the incorporation is forced by
the donor group. Under coercion the receptor group not only loses its political
independence; more important from the standpoint of its cultural autonomy,
it loses its freedom to modify creatively what it is forced to accept as given.
This strait-jacketing of acceptance forbids the flexibility of reinterpretation
and reassociation that is essential to the independent functioning of a cultural
system. When it is accompanied, as it usually is with captive cultures, by the
mandatory elimination of certain customs, it is easy to understand why sys-
tems so enthralled proceed to "disintegrate." They do so because they have
lost the prerogative of integrating what they want and rejecting the rest. Their
creative mechanisms have been blocked.
Even when force is absent the conjunction of two systems usually create
tendencies that are at least potentially disintegrative. These tendencies de
velop in a system to the extent that its borrowed traits set up differentiatin
alternatives which demand partisan commitments by the society's member
In this way factional struggles, such as those between what are usually calle
"progressives" and "conservatives," develop. Contests for status and preroga
tives are also common when cross-cultural influences are pronounced enoug
to unsettle traditional controls. Cleavages may take place along age, sex, o
other social borders. Intergenerational conflicts are commonplace features
acculturation wherever cultures meet; they undermine immigrant family lif
in the United States, as they do in contact situations elsewhere in the worl
In addition to divisions along pre-existing group or class lines there are man
others which gerrymander an exposed population in accordance with individual
preferences for or against introduced objects, procedures, and ideas.
Presumably, any autonomous system is capable of indefinite growth as
long as it can maintain its internal controls. Since this is evident as far as in
ternally stimulated change is concerned, there is no reason to suppose that
radically distinct situation is precipitated by the injection of an alien trai
There are probably variable tolerances for growth, assuming that other fac
tors, such as rate and force of presentation of new ideas, can be held constant.
Some culture types may be not only more rigid in adhering to their valu
orientations but also for the same reason less able to assimilate new elements
under contact without creating intolerable tensions among their carriers. Th
may be the case with a closely integrated system; extensive undermining of
command value may dispose the entire system to collapse, although the doo
is open for subsequent reintegration. Also it is likely that at some periods in its
history a system is more vulnerable than it is at others, as, for example, when
it is in a crucial phase of adjusting its conflicts or of striving to restore its equilib
rium. Still, provided the shock of contact is not too unsettling, it may be as
sumed that a system operating under its own controls is able to absorb alien

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 987
materials just as it adjusts to internal changes under the force of its own ad
tive mechanisms.
When its autonomy is threatened a system may respond belligerently; that
is, it may resort to force to maintain its independence. This has happened re-
peatedly as expanding systems have sought to dominate others in the path of
their exploitations. Failure to maintain cultural and political independence of-
ten results in a reaction of defeatism which may be manifested in the neglect
of ceremonial observances, the establishment of a dependency relationship with
the dominant group, and population decline.

REACTIVE ADAPTATION
Another response to threat when the pressure is less nearly overwhelming
is to withdraw and to encyst native values. In this instance there is, so to speak,
a reactive adaptation to threat: native forms are reaffirmed and re-enforced by
a renewed commitment to them. Thus when the Japanese attempted to induce
Palauan men to undertake rice farming, the Palauan man's aversion to any
activity resembling taro cultivation-a female occupation-was strengthened
and the Japanese program rejected. More familiar and more spectacular ex-
pressions of the same phenomenon have repeatedly occurred as nativistic re-
actions of one sort or another, including revivalistic cults, nationalistic move-
ments, and isolationist programs.

PROGRESSIVE ADJUSTMENT

If we assume that neither withdrawal from alien contact nor the complete
annihilation of a group occurs, conjunctive relations at any time must fall
under one of two headings: progressive adjustment or stabilized pluralism.
Progressive adjustment can lead predominantly in the direction of fusion or
that of assimilation. In fusion the approximation of the two autonomous sys-
tems is roughly mutual, though probably never perfectly so. "Bilateral" could
be used in describing the ideal typical pole of fusion on the continuum, with
"unilateral" characterizing the opposite theoretical absolute of assimilation.
Obviously, the trend of adjustment in most contact situations is toward some
point between the poles of a balanced blending and the total submersion of one
culture by the other. It is nevertheless useful to gauge and attempt to account
for differences of trend.

Cultural Fusion

An intercultural network can develop into a genuine third sociocultural sys-

tem through a process of fusion. If it does, it must exhibit the attributes o
uniqueness and autonomy possessed by parent systems. It is probable that in
almost every instance some modification of unilaterally extended roles will b
necessary to adjust to the peculiarities of the system with which they must
articulate. Some distinctiveness is also to be expected from the emergence o
ad hoc roles, such as those of designated go-betweens, proxies, and buffering

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
988 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
agents, which did not previously exist in either sys
cluster of intercultural roles to give rise to a new i
tion system or an arbitration council, which is r
ever, isolated complexes of this character do not ne
cultural role network that is either an integrated sy
cultural body. A real third system probably emer
ance of the original two through fusion in a given
invading and resident cultures in Mexico and to s
be possible for a third system to emerge without th
nal two from its territory, but theoretically this s
ing forces which are strong enough to eventuate in
tem would appear to be sufficient to eliminate com
parent systems. Or if the fusion is not sufficien
some and the adoption and reconfiguration of th
original systems, then it is unlikely that such fusio
tem with full cultural qualifications. Put another w
the essential outlines of both the merging cultures,
ture with outlines clear enough to be maintaine
either or both parent traditions may theoreticall
if there is a territorial separation, without fundam
gence of a third system.

Assimilation

The second type of progressive adjustment is the assimilation of one group

by another. In some ways it is the dichotomous opposite of fusion. American
sociologists have given much attention to this phenomenon as manifested on
both the individual level (passing, marginality, and the like) and the group
level (the changing modes of ethnic self-definition and valuation, etc.). Accul-
turation is a necessary but not sufficient condition of assimilation (Broom and
Shevky 1952). The latter requires that the erstwhile ethnics should have not
only the internalized cultural skills to move freely in the large social order but
also full and free access to those parts of the order for which they have the cul-
tural prerequisites. This is not to say that assimilation is measured by some
random distribution in the status and power hierarchy, except in the extreme
long-run, for clearly this would assume the eradication of historical differences
in the introduction of groups into the society. Although it is never fully real-
ized, assimilation implies an essentially unilateral approximation of one culture
in the direction of the other, albeit a changing or ongoing other. Complete as-
similation, like complete fusion, is much less frequent in fact than is indicated
by the frequency with which the term is used in the literature.
It is interesting to consider how much the difference in emphasis between
anthropology and sociology in the study of culture contact may be the product
of ethnographic specialization more than of basic theoretical or methodological
differences. As is well known, American sociological students of acculturation
have given much of their attention to United States immigrant groups, while

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 989
anthropologists have concentrated on nonmigrant and non-Western pe
albeit peoples usually under Western contact. The immigrant groups
United States in the numerically preponderant cases were nearly all or
Western peoples, motivated toward assimilation, and were peoples who
to a milieu which may be among the most notable in history for its rapidi
ethnic absorption. Assimilation, on the whole, is taken as a positive va
both donor and receptor in these cases, and the sociological student h
been unaffected by the valuation. The anthropologist's subjects, on th
hand, besides being non-Western, have not voluntarily moved to any
the Western world. Rather, the West has come to impinge upon or engulf
They usually lack any initial inclination to assimilate, they have deep h
cal roots in the localities where they are found, and they seldom have
relatively undisruptive solution of their difficulties as to let the "progress
emigrate and the "conservatives" remain. Assimilation is rarely valued
one time by all the natives or by all segments of the Western group
apartheid). In a sense of fairness and moral indignation the anthropolog
frequently rejected assimilation and all that it stands for and has be
lighted to find evidence of the "savage" holding his own, or even striking
(Lips 1937). He has tended to emphasize evidence of fusion wherever p
such as minor influences upon the dominant group or concessions th
obliged to make, in contrast to many sociologists' espousal of assimil
The American Negro is an exception to much of the above, and it is
worthy that a controversy over the interpretation of Negro data exists be
certain anthropologists and sociologists which reflects precisely the differ
emphasis described here between the two fields. These contrasting ten
of sociologists and anthropologists, in working on problems often clos
lated, may account for an important part of the failure to make mo
joint and co-ordinate contribution to acculturation research.
Whether exploration of the differences between fusion and assimilation
actually been retarded by the contrasting orientation of sociology and
pology in this matter, there can be no questioning its importance. The dif
ences sketched above concerning the traditional locations of anthropo
vs. sociological research suggest several historical and ethnographic co
which may be crucial themselves to the question of fusion or assimilation.
factors as voluntary migration or deep local attachments, assimilatio
positive or a negative value, small or large degree of cultural match, di
tial prestige, and balanced or unbalanced numbers only indicate the
headings under which to pursue the problem of why adjustment betwe
systems progresses toward fusion and adjustment of others toward assimil
Of late, however, evidence has been accumulating that even the "sa
for whom many an anthropologist held only timid hopes, is not in all
readily to be written off the rolls as had been reluctantly believed. O
peoples in contact this indeed has long been known to be true. The fa
direct importance for acculturation theory. It is certainly not impli
every case that a progressive trend toward fusion or toward assimilatio

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
990 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
run its full course, at least in any given span o
fusion or short-run assimilation may well be specia
demand investigation. Each probably implies a sp
ties of the two cultures in contact, and of the co
tion the reasons for differences of rate must be un
occurrence of fusion or assimilation.

STABILIZED PLURALISM

In order to understand progressive adjustment, it is also necessary to ex

plore cases of arrested fusion or incomplete assimilation. By this is meant st
bilized pluralism, namely, the failure of two cultures in contact completely t
lose their autonomy (Linton 1940:510-11; Tax 1941; Gillin 1945; Brune
1953; Coughlin Ms.). Theoretically, at least, stabilized pluralism implies only
an extreme slackening of the rate of progressive adjustment. In any event,
common patttern of adjustment appears in the many cases of a relatively
stabilized relationship between two contacting cultures, as happens in som
caste systems, in the adaptations of enclaves and their dominant hosts, and i
the symbiotic connection between some sedentary and nomadic groups in th
Old World. In these instances an intercultural system has reached a point of
institutionalized adjustment to serve the interests of both groups. Often
parallel ethnic institutions develop in the two societies in continuous and
stabilized contact. These institutions are significant in acculturative adapt
tion in at least three respects. They ameliorate the stresses of interethnic
situations and provide contexts for validating acculturation under relatively
permissive conditions. They also provide criteria of acculturation for membe
of the ethnic group and as such they may express selective emphases of dom
nant cultural forms, symbols, and valuations due to the socially differentiate
position of the two groups. Further, they legitimatize the status system of the
ethnic community in which one may expect to find transplanted importan
aspects of the stratification criteria of the dominant society (Broom and
Kitsuse Ms.).

DIFFERENTIAL RATES OF CHANGE

Change under contact conditions, like change under internal stimulati

seems to proceed at uneven rates in different areas of culture regardless of th
nature of the intercultural system. It has often been remarked that in the co
junction between Western and non-Western cultures technology appear
alter more readily than do other aspects of a system. This may be due in
to the emphasis placed upon technology in the Western world as well as t
evident superiority over most local forms. Since material accomplishme
represents values held by the invaders in such cases, the same considerat
may help to explain why Westerners, when they are affected by contact,
adopt objects rather than behaviors and ideas.
In point of fact, the conventional categories of cultural descript
technology, social organization, religion, etc.-do not readily lend themse

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 991
to an analysis of differential change. All cultural segments have their concrete
aspects, and these more explicit behaviors and apparatus are as a rule mor
readily mastered than symbolic and valuational aspects. In religion, for exam
ple, objects and rituals may be assimilated as rapidly as new tools. They ma
be integrated as long as they enhance prevailing security and orientationa
functions. In the absence of coercion even more clearly efficient implemen
have been rejected or ignored when perceived to interfere with basic cultur
understandings (Hall and Trager 1953). Furthermore, adoption of a foreig
object can in most cases be an individual matter; at any rate it does not nece
sarily raise the social complications and the need for common consent that a
inescapable with the transfer of an alien kinship system or marriage custom
Intangibles also appear to show levels of differential change. Specific an
isolated ideas and behaviors are thought to be more vulnerable than those
integrated with a more inclusive set of values. The more generalized values are,
the more persistent they seem to be. What might be called the basic premis
of a people regarding the nature of man and the universe can go unchange
despite considerable modification in technology and other aspects of cultur
These inferred values of a culture appear to have a greater continuity in many,
if not in all cases, and for this reason have themselves been conceptualized
selectors, molders, and integrators. If they have a controlling position they
may be said to screen the incoming material and to order its placement in t
existing system.
It has been suggested that the greatest resistance to change and reorgan
zation will occur in certain universal categories of cultural adaptation: main
tenance systems, communication systems, and security systems (Keesing Ms
By contrast, there are elements which are only weakly supported by mor
judgments of right and wrong, propriety and inpropriety, desirability and un-
desirability, and hence more susceptible to change. In most cases these les
resistant aspects would include what are rated as luxury products, such a
ornamentation, art, and leisure activities, in so far as they are not symbol
of deeply held values. But it is evident that much additional research is need
on this problem.

LONG-RANGE REGULARITIES

In the search for uniformities in acculturation processes, the possibility

regularities in sequential developments over long time-spans should not b
neglected. Are there in fact processual regularities in acculturation compara
to those suggested for the development of early civilizations (Steward 1949
and for the transformations of the primitive world (Redfield 1953)? The i
plication is that the processes in certain phases may be determined more b
earlier forms of intercultural interaction than by further changes in conta
conditions. There may be a limited number of sequential types in acculturation
in which later phases follow predictably from earlier phases.
The acculturation literature contains a number of attempts to identify t
sequential "stage" or "phase" developments in particular cases (Thurnwald

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 992 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
1935; Firth 1929; LaFarge 1940; Keesing 1941; Mekeel
Gillin 1946:165-66; Elkin 1951; Goubaud 1952; Bea
Some of these formulations deal with large ethnogra
single tribes. Some treat total cultural systems in pro
restrict themselves to statements about acculturating
A few take into account the intercultural nature of t
only one side of the equation, typically the "native" c
stand, comparative study of the phenomenon is difficult
cause the approach to the problem is so uneven. It is
few students have attempted comparative statement
1952).
Fruitful possibilities exist in this problem area, as, for instance, in the on-
set of nativistic movements as acculturational phases. It has been suggested
(Linton 1940: chap. 10; 1943) that nativistic movements do not typically ap-
pear during the early period of contact but tend to develop later. However,
more research is needed on the problem of the conditions which trigger and
sustain these reactions both in dominant and in dominated groups.
It is evident that research into the problem of identifiable and regular de-
velopmental sequences in acculturation will require the best control of the
historical and archeological data that can be mustered, detailed and co-
ordinate comparisons of various acculturative situations over long time spans,
and explicit recognition of the reciprocal intercultural nature of the processes.
A suggestive formulation has been provided for Australia (Elkin 1951). Similar
formulations are required for other areas as well as systematic comparative
treatment both of cases involving European contacts and of those in which
non-Western cultures have been in conjunction.

A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

We have provided some suggestions for a way of looking at acculturation

phenomena and have suggested some of the types of hypotheses which might
be derived from this theoretical framework. The next step is obviously one of
continuing research enterprises which will enable us to say what combinations
of conditions and patterns will produce what kinds of processes. If anthropolo-
gists were omnipotent katchinas, our task would be easy. We could take two
cultural systems with specified properties and bring them into conjunction in
a particular type of environmental situation, and then wait to see what hap-
pens-what kind of intercultural network develops and what kinds of processes
result. After a sufficient number of such experiments using different combina-
tions of variables, our katchina observer could predict with considerable
precision.
But since anthropologists are not katchinas, we are reduced to utilizing
comparative methods of analysis of cultural systems in conjunction as we find
them in their natural states in the world. Typically, by the time we look at an
acculturation situation firsthand, the two cultural systems are already in
contact and have been in contact for a long period of time. We begin by study-

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S,S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 993
ing the total situation as it exists at the present time; when we may move
ward in time by taking earlier "readings" based upon the testimony
informants, the data found in historical documents, or, in some cases, the
provided by archeology. We may move forward in time and take later
ings" by observing acculturation processes in long-range field projects
"readings" on an acculturation situation and sequence can then be com
with other situations and sequences where the variables, as found
natural state, are different in specifiable ways. Eventually, by the use of ca
comparative designs and the use of comparable categories for analysis
hope to arrive by this long and tortuous process of study at the state of kn
edge which could be readily reached by experimentation if anthropol
were katchinas.
APPENDIX

During the course of the seminar a number of other topics w

which could not be incorporated smoothly into the main body
The substance of our conclusions on the most important of the
briefly presented below.
PERSONALITY AND ACCULTURATION

In recent years attempts to treat responsiveness to change as an expression

of personality characteristics has been given two formulations, the interrela-
tionships of which are not yet clear. In one approach the concept of a basic or
modal personality structure provides insight into what might be accepted by
a given group and what types and rates of adjustment may be expected of the
group in acculturative situations (Linton, in Kardiner 1945; Barnouw 1950;
Wallace 1951; Caudill 1952). In the other approach the concept of deviant
individuals has posed related issues concerning individual receptivity to
change: whether personal conflicts predispose individuals to embrace alienp
patterns (Barnett 1941), the extent to which conflicts may lead to an intensi-
fied return to native patternis as well as to departures from them (Vogt 1951),
whether elite rating is a variable factor in defining acceptors in different accul-
turative situations (Adams 1951), and the function of certain need-dispositions
as determinants in acceptance (Rapoport 1954).
As far as acculturation is concerned, the psychological problem is to deter,
mine the depth of commitment to certain shared patterns and values and con-
sequently to assess the difficulties of accepting changes. For what is important
in this connection is not the structure or the orientation of personality itself
but the extent to which certain basic values are internalized or rejected and
the extent to which they function as selective mechanisms in acculturation.
This problem can be explored with the aid of life histories (Aberle 1951),
by situational choice tests, and perhaps by projective tests such as the Ror-
schach and T.A.T. if the methodological difficulties of employing these devices
cross-culturally can be resolved. The use of such psychological instruments
may also define a spectrum of social and psychological types of more or less
acculturated individuals (Hallowell 1952). Such a spectrum of coexisting types

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 994 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
might conceivably provide insights into acculturative ef
also contribute to an ordering of the relationships be
ants and intercultural role playing: are contact agent
own cultures; or does the filling of such a role tend
variants?

There is the additional question of what happens to individual personality

systems under acculturative stress. Some researches lead to the conclusion that
at deep psychological levels they are persistent (Hallowell 1952). Others indi-
cate that at least in certain cultures the conflicts induced by alien pressures
tend to have disintegrative effects (Kluckhohn and Leighton 1946; Thompson
1950). Still others suggest that an integration takes place on a new level after
some disintegration during a transitional stage (Spindler 1952; Spindler and
Goldschmidt 1952).

LANGUAGE AND ACCULTURATION

Language communication is a principal medium for the flow of cultural

elements and provides an important clue for assessing the dynamics of this
transfer. As long as the members of autonomous groups perceive mutual ad-
vantages and are also motivated to preserve their cultural differences, com-
munication between them will involve either bi- or multilingualism on the part
of one or both; the development of a marginal language (e.g., a jargon, pidgin
or creolized language); the adoption of a lingua franca (Swahili; Chinook
jargon); or, in extreme cases of intermittent and specific contacts, gestural
patterns of communication (Mead 1931; Reinicke Ms.; Hall 1953). The alter-
native selected in a given situation is of special interest to linguists and students
of acculturation alike.
The social functions of language vary in multilingual situations. Specifi-
cally, it is important to investigate the categories of individuals who become
multilingual, the social contexts in which they use each language, and attrac-
tion to or withdrawal from a dominant culture in relation to skill in using the
language (Barker 1947; Weinreich 1953).
Linguistic change goes on pari passu with changes in other spheres of cul-
ture under conditions of contact. As long as the respective language speakers
retain a degree of cultural autonomy changes may be expected to occur in any
or all aspects of the language systems, whether lexical, phonological, or syn-
tactic. Internal tendencies, such as extensions or losses of prevailing construc-
tions and sound shifts, may be reinforced or they may compete with alternative
phonological and structural features. Or lexical innovations, based on the
analogy of alien forms but using indigenous elements, may be introduced
(Johnson 1943; Casagrande 1951).
Finally, lexical change, which is the most obvious, suggests several prob-
lems. Some groups will consistently take over words with alien objects or
practices, whereas others will almost invariably coin new words from their
own language resources. This may be a function of similarity or difference of
formative processes, of cultural interest, or of some other factor. The proposi-

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 995
tion that a shift in the manner of linguistic adaptation is a function of a
change in the orientation of the receptor culture merits consideration

USE OF ARCHEOLOGICAL DATA IN ACCULTURATION STUDY

Archeological materials do not lend themselves to the extensive a

that is envisaged in this paper for observed or historically document
tacts. The data of archeology, like those of contemporary ethnogra
offer additional instances of the consequences of acculturation, but t
dence for the meeting of autonomous systems and their conjunctive r
must be inferred. Despite these limitations, the same theoretical fram
might be applicable both to ethnology and to archeology, and what is
by contact phenomena in the former should illuminate some kinds of pro
presented by the latter. Acculturative changes can, for example, some
inferred from shifts in pottery traditions, art styles, or house types
1953a). It may also be productive to treat some instances of an intensi
turn to earlier material culture patterns as manifestations of nativis
tions. Archeological research alerted to the multidimensional concept
culturation will probably require both the careful formulation of r
problems and hypotheses (Willey 1953b; Rouse 1953) and a close cont
analysis of archeological remains (Taylor 1948). Students interested
range acculturation processes can also profitably utilize certain bodies of a
ological material to obtain readings on culture-contact situations whic
in prehistoric periods. For example, a long-range analysis of Navaho ac
tion processes would profit by the use of archeological data on N
Pueblo contacts (Keur 1941).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABERLE, DAVID F.
1951 The psychosocial analysis of a Hopi life-history. Compara
Monographs 21, No. 107.
ADAIR, JOHN and EvoN Z. VOGT
1949 Navaho and Zuni veterans: a study of contrasting modes of cult
can Anthropologist 51:547-61.
ADAMS, RICHARD N.
1951 Personnel in culture change: a test of a hypothesis. Social Fo
ALBRECHT, A. C.
1946 Indian-French relations at Natchez. American Anthropologist
BARKER, GEORGE
1947 Social functions of language in a Mexican-American communit
5:185-202.
BARNETT, HOMER G.
1941 Personal conflicts and cultural change. Social Forces 20:160-71.
1949 Palauan society: a study of contemporary native life in the Palau Islands. Eug
Oregon, University of Oregon.
1953 Innovation. New York, McGraw-Hill.
BARNOUW, VICTOR
1950 Acculturation and personality among the Wisconsin Chippewa. American Ant
pological Association Memoir No. 72.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
996 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
BATES, MARSTON
1952 Where winter never comes. New York, Scribner
BATESON, GREGORY
1935 Culture contact and schismogenesis. Man, Art. 1
BEALS, RALPH
1951 Urbanism, urbanization and acculturation. Amer
1952 Notes on acculturation. In: Heritage of Conquest,
Ill., Free Press.
1953 Acculturation. In: Anthropology Today, by A. L. K
Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
BIENENSTOK, THEODORE
1950 Social life and authority in the East European Sh
Journal of Anthropology 6:238-54.
BOGORAS, VLADIMIR G.
1904-9 The Chukchee. New York, G. E. Steckert.
BROOM, LEONARD and JOHN I. KITSUSE
Ms. The validation of acculturation: a condition to ethnic assimilation. American
Anthropologist. In Press.
BROOM, LEONARD and E. SHEVKY
1952 Mexicans in the United States: a problem in social differentiation. Sociology
Social Research 36, No. 3.
BRUNER, EDWARD M.
1953 Assimilation among Fort Berthold Indians. The Amatican Indian 6:21-29.
CAMIPISI, PAUL J.
Ms. A scale for the measurement of acculturation. Ph.D. dissertation, Universi
Chicago. 1947.
CASAGRANDE, JOSEPH B.
Ms. Comanche linguistic acculturation: a study in ethnolinguistics. Ph.D. dissert
Columbia University. 1951. Available on microfilm.
CAUDILL, WILLIAM
1952 Japanese American personality and acculturation. Genetic Psychology M
graphs 45:3-102.
CHILD, IRVIN
1943 Italian or American? The second generation in conflict. New Haven, Yale
versity Press.
COOK, S. F.
1945 Demographic consequences of European contact with primitive peoples. Ann
the American Academy of Political and Social Science 237:107-11.
COUGHLIN, RICHARD J.
Ms. The Chinese in Bangkok: a study of cultural persistence. Ph.D. disserta
Yale University. 1953.
DAVIS, KINGSLEY
1951 The population of India and Pakistan. Princeton, Princeton University Pre
EATON, J. W.
1952 Controlled acculturation: a survival technique of the Hutterites. Americ
Sociological Review 17:331-40.
EGGAN, FRED
1950 Social organization of the Western Pueblos. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
EKVALL, ROBERT B.
1939 Cultural relations on the Kansu-Tibetan border. Chicago, University of Chicago
Press.
ELKIN, A. P.
1951 Reaction and interaction: a food gathering people and European settlement.
American Anthropologist 53:164-86.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 997
FIRTH, RAYMOND
1929 Primitive economics of the New Zealand Maori. New York, E. P. Dutton.
FORDE, C. DARYLL
1934 Habitat, economy and society. London, Methuen and Co.
FORTES, M.
1936 Culture contact as a dynamic process. Africa 9:24-55.
GILLIN, JOHN
1945 Parallel cultures and the inhibitions to acculturation in a Guatemalan community.
Social Forces 24:1-14.
1946 Mestizo America. In: Most of the World, ed. Ralph Linton, pp. 156-211. New York,
Columbia University Press.
GLUCKMAN, MAX
1940a Analysis of a social situation in modern Zululand. Bantu Studies 14:1-30, 147-74.
1940b The kingdom of the Zulu of South Africa. In: African Political Systems, ed. M.
Fortes and E. E. Pritchard, pp. 25-55. London, Oxford University Press.
GOUBAUD, A. CARRERA
1952 Indian adjustments to modern national culture. In: Acculturation in the Americas
(Proceedings and Selected Papers of the XXIXth International Congress of
Americanists), ed. Sol Tax, pp. 244-48. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
HALL, EDWARD T., JR. and GEORGE L. TRAGER
1953 The analysis of culture. Washington, D.C., Foreign Service Institute.
HALL, ROBERT A., JR.
1953 Haitian Creole. American Anthropological Association Memoir No. 74.
HALLOWELL, A. IRVING
1945 Sociopsyhological aspects of acculturation. In: The Science of Man in the World
Crisis, ed. Ralph Linton, pp. 171-200. New York, Columbia University Press.
1952 Ojibwa personality and acculturation. In: Acculturation in the Americas (Pro-
ceedings and Selected Papers of the XXIXth International Congress of American-
ists), ed. Sol Tax, pp. 105-12.
HERSKOVITS, MELVILLE J.
1938 Acculturation: the study of culture contact. New York, Augustin.
1948 Man and His works. New York, Knopf.
HOLMBERG, A. R.
1950 Nomads of the long bow: the Sirion6 of eastern Bolivia. Publications of the Insti-
tute of Social Anthropology No. 10. Washington, D.C.
HONIGMANN, JOHN J.
1952 Intercultural relations at Great Whale River. American Anthropologist 54:510-22.
JOHNSON, JEAN B.
1943 A clear case of linguistic acculturation. American Anthropologist 45:427-34.
KARDINER, ABRAM
1945 The psychological frontiers of society. New York, Columbia University Press.
KEESING, FELIX M.
1941 The South Seas in the modern world. New York, John Day Co.
Ms. Cultural dynamics and administration. Prepared for the Seventh Pacific Science
Congress. 1949. Manuscript at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
1953 Culture change: an analysis and bibliography of anthropological sources to 1952
Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press.
KEUR, D. L.
1941 Big Bead Mesa: an archaeological study of Navaho acculturation, 1745-1812.
Society for American Archaeology Memoir 1.
KLUCKHOHN, CLYDE
1943 Covert culture and administrative problems. American Anthropologist 45:213-27.
KLUCKHOHN, CLYDE and DOROTHEA LEIGHTON
1946 The Navaho. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 998 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
KLUCKHOHN, FLORENCE
1950 Dominant and substitute profiles of cultural orientat
KOLLMORGEN, WALTER M.
1942 The Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsy
culture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Rural Lif
D.C.
KROEBER, A. L.
1939 Cultural and natural areas of native North America. University of Calif
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 38.
1942 In: Levels of Integration in Biological and Social Systems, ed. Robert Red
Lancaster, Pa., Cattell Press.
1948 Anthropology. New York, Harcourt Brace.
KRZYWICKI, LUDWIK
1934 Primitive society and its vital statistics. London, Macmillan.
LAFARGE, OLIVER
1940 Maya ethnology: the sequence of cultures. In: The Maya and their Neigh
(dedicated to Alfred M. Tozzer), pp. 281-91. New York and London, Appl
Century.
LINDGREN, ETHEL J.
1938 An example of culture contact without conflict: Reindeer Tungus and Cossacks
of northwestern Manchuria. American Anthropologist 40:605-21.
LINTON, RALPH
1940 (ed.) Acculturation in seven American Indian tribes. New York, Appleton-Century.
1943 Nativistic movements. American Anthropologist 45:230-39.
LIPs, JULIUS
1937 The savage hits back. New Haven, Yale University Press.
MACIVER, ROBERT M.
1937 Society. New York, Farrar and Rinehart.
MAIR, L. P.
1938 (ed.) Methods of study of culture contact in Africa. International Institute of
African Languages and Cultures, Memorandum XV. London, Oxford University
Press for the Institute.
MALINOWSKI, B.
1922 Argonauts of the western Pacific. London, Routledge.
1945 The dynamics of culture change. New Haven, Yale University Press.
MANDELBAUM, D. G.
1941 Culture change among the Nilgiri tribes. American Anthropologist 43:19-26.
MAYER, A. C.
1952 Land and society in Malabar. London, Oxford University Press.
MEAD, MARGARET
1931 Talk boy. Asia 31:144-51.
MEKEEL, SCUDDER
1943 A short history of the Teton-Dakota. North Dakota Historical Quarterly 10:137-
205.
MILLS, CLARENCE A.
1942 Climate makes the man. New York, Harper and Brothers.
MOORE, WILBERT ELLIS
1951 Industrialization and labor: social aspects of economic development. Ithaca,
Cornell University Press.
MYRDAL, GUNNAR
1944 An American dilemma. New York, Harper and Sons.
NIEBOER, H. J.
1900 Slavery as an industrial system. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
S.S.R.C.] Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation 999
OPLER, MORRIS E.
1945 Themes as dynamic forces in culture. The American Journal of Sociology 5
203.
PARSONS, TALCOTT
1951 The social system. Glencoe, Ill., Free Press.
PITT-RIVERS, GEORGE HENRY LANE FOX
1927 The clash of culture and the contact of races. London, Routledge.
PRICE, A. G.
1939 White settlers in the tropics. New York, American Geographical Society.
RAMOS, ARTHUR

1947 Introdugao A antropologia brasileira. Rio de Janeiro, Colego Estudos Brasileiros.

RAPOPORT, ROBERT N.
1954 Changing Navaho religious values: a study of Christian missions to the Rimrock
Navahos. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University 41, No. 2.
REDFIELD, ROBERT
1953 The primitive world and its transformations. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
REDFIELD, R., R. LINTON and M. J. HERSKOVITS
1936 Memorandum on the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist 38:149-52.
REINICKE, JOHN
Ms. Marginal languages. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University. 1937.
1938 Trade jargons and Creole dialects as marginal languages. Social Forces 17:107-18.
RIVERS, W. H. R. (ed.)
1922 Essays on the depopulation of Melanesia. Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press.
ROUSE, IRVING
1953 The strategy of culture history. In: Anthropology Today, by A. L. Kroeber and
others, pp. 57-76. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
SIEGEL, B. J.
1945 Some methodological considerations for a comparative study of slavery. American
Anthropologist 47:357-92.
SPIER, L.
1921 The Sun Dance of the Plains Indians: its development and diffusion. Anthropologi-
cal Papers of the American Museum of Natural History XVI, No. 7:451-527.
SPINDLER, GEORGE D.
1952 Personality and Peyotism in Menomini Indian acculturation. Psychiatry 15:151-
59.
SPINDLER, GEORGE D. and WALTER GOLDSCHMIDT
1952 Experimental design in the study of culture change. Southwestern Journal of
Anthropology 8:68-83.
SPOEHR, A.
1947 Changing kinship systems. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological
Series 33:159-235. Chicago.
STEWARD, JULIAN H.
1938 Basin-Plateau aboriginal socio-political groups. Smithsonian Institute, Bureau
of American Ethnology Bulletin 120. Washington, D.C.
1949a Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 5. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau
of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. Washington, D.C.
1949b Cultural causality and law: a trial formulation of the development of early civiliza-
tions. American Anthropologist 51:1-27.
1951 Levels of socio-cultural integration. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology
7:374-90.
TAX, SOL
1941 World view and social relations in Guatemala. American Anthropologist 43:27-42.

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1000 American Anthropologist [56, 1954
TAX, SOL, AND OTHERS
1952 Heritage of conquest: the ethnology of Middle Ame
TAYLOR, WALTER W.
1948 A study of archaeology. American Anthropologic
THOMPSON, LAURA
1950 Culture in crisis. Chicago, Chicago University Pre
THURNWALD, RICHARD C.
1932 The psychology of acculturation. American Anthr
1935 Black and white in East Africa. London, Humanit
UNDERHILL, RUTH
1948 Ceremonial patterns in the Greater Southwest. M
Ethnological Society 13.
VOGT, EVON Z.
1951 Navaho veterans, a study of changing values. Pape
Harvard University 41, No. 1.
WALLACE, A. F. C.
1951 Some psychological determinants of culture chang
In: Symposium on Local Diversity in Iroquoian cul
Ethnology Bulletin 149:55-76.
WARNER, WILLIAM LLOYD
1937 A Black civilization: a social study of an Australian
Bros.
WATSON, JAMES B.

1952 Cayu, culture change. American Anthropological

1953 Way station of Westernization: the Brazilian Cab
for Brazilian Studies, Vanderbilt University, Nashvill
WAX, ROSE
Ms. An analysis of acculturation abstracts. 1953. Manus
Stanford, Calif.
WEINREICH, URIEL
1953 Languages in contact. New York, Columbia Univer
WILLEY, GORDON R.
1953a A pattern of diffusion-acculturation. Southwest
9:369-84.
1953b Archaeological theories and interpretation: New World. In: Anthropology To
by A. L. Kroeber and others, pp. 361-85. Chicago, University of Chicago Pre
WILLIAMS, F. E.
1935 The blending of cultures: an essay on the aims of native education. Territory
Papua, Anthropological Reports 16. Port Moresby.
WILSON, G. and M.
1945 The analysis of social change: based on observations in central Africa. Cambr
Cambridge University Press.

Comment by H. G. BARNETT
The other members of the seminar have generously invited me to ap
my comments to their formulation. My purpose in accepting the invitat
not to evaluate the document; that should be left to others not so close t
My mildly heretical remarks have a wider reference, stemming as they do f
doubts about any interpretation which translates human behavior into
tural terms.
For most people their first acquaintance with the concept of culture is an
enlightening experience. It seems to put order into confusion and explair

This content downloaded from

14.139.240.11 on Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:57:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms