Diffusion and Change of Culture

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  • 文化の伝播と変容 : 文化科学における北海道の地位について
  • ブンカ ノ デンパ ト ヘンヨウ ブンカ カガク ニ オケル ホッカイドウ ノ チイ ニ ツイテ

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Abstract

It has drawn the attention of many scholars that when a higher or newer culture and a lower culture exist side by side, diffusion of culture will occur from one to the other and in its acceptance there will be culture change. I want to suggest, by giving some examples, that in the process of the revolutionary acceptance of a culture there seem to be differences in the degree of resistance to accepting a new culture according to generations. Thus there are variant patterns of culture or cultural attitudes according to generations. Such examples can be found in the characteristic mode of living and the attitude toward living in each generation of the Ainu in Hokkaido who are now rapidly being Japanized. A higher or hetrogeneous culture might be accepted in its entirety by a people with a lower culture, while resistance against its diffusion and acceptance can be noted over several generations ; the form changing by stages as it is absorbed into the original cultural life. Although the diffusion of culture has often been discussed in connection with the completed process of acculturation among many ethnic groups, we have not as yet reached the stage of clarifying the processes of the revolutionary acceptance and change of a new culture and the establishment of the laws concerned. In this regard the study of the Ainu will contribute very much as they may be continued into the fourth or fifth generation of those who first came into contact with large scale immigrations of Japanese. They show us the much differentiated, discontinuous attitude of each generation toward the new culture which is to be observed and traced with our own eyes. It is, I think, an extraordinary case and would be a very interesting subject matter for investigation by our cultural anthropologists. The same but a somewhat different case is to be found in the acculturation of each generation of American-Japanese, which will present an important model case for the study of attitudes regarding social change.

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