Cultural Transmission and Cultural Change

STUDENTS OF ACCULTURATION agree that in every contact situation some aspects of the native culture change more than others, but they do not agree on why this is so, nor on how to characterize that which has changed and that which has not in categories that have cross-cultural validity. Nor do they understand why a change in one area of culture sometimes precipitates radical change or disorganization throughout the entire culture pattern while other times a very modest or even negligible readjustment occurs. Two recent surveys of the literature on acculturation2 call for additional research on the problem of different rates of change in various aspects of culture. This paper explores a tentative general proposition, one not mentioned in the above surveys, which aids in the ordering of data gathered among the MandanHidatsa Indians of North Dakota on differential culture change.