INVENTION AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Abstract

S ONE result of a study of cultural change made in 1938, it appeared to A the writer that a significant relation exists between one aspect of the acceptance of newly introduced traits and the phenomenon of invention.On the basis of the data collected then, a proposition regarding responses to alien traits was formulated in the following terms: that the members of two contacting societies consistently fail to make or accept cross-cultural substitutions of traits and behaviors when these, as is most often the case, are overtly unlike, no matter how certainly they may be shown to perform equivalent functions in the two cultures.'A t the same time it seemed that the process of functional substitution was precisely what constituted an invention.If valid, these propositions raised a problem, for it is generally accepted that the meeting of two cultures is a stimulus rather than a deterrent to invention.Taking the view that a paradox was involved, the writer felt that the apparent contradiction could be resolved, first, by a closer analysis of invention; and second, by another attack on the problems connected with cultural innovations resulting from the contact of two peoples.I n pursuance of the first requirement a number of modern inventions have been studied; for the second the contact of the Tsimshian of British Columbia and the whites was chosen for data to be used as a check upon those already obtained.2The results, as far as this problem is concerned, appear below.Before proceeding with the analysis it is necessary to point out that traits in their dynamic relationships do not behave as discrete inflexible wholes.They have several aspects, and these manifest themselves clearly when the trait is undergoing change.Under such conditions it becomes apparent that every trait has a form, a meaning, and a function; or, perhaps better stated, a conceptualization in these terms adds greatly to our meager stock of tools for dealing with the processes of cultural change.Linton first formulated these concepts, and the reader is referred to his discussion of them; they are used here as he has defined them.aHowever, to these three, so it seems, there must be added a fourth variable; namely, the principle of a trait.The principle is the scheme or theme about which the form is organized, and it is an inherent part of both material 1 H.

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