Revitalization Movements and Social Structure: Some Quantitative Tests

After reviewing some of the methodological difficulties which have faced investigators trying to investigate the rise of revitalization movements, the methodological advantages of studying the acceptance of the Ghost Dance (circa 1889) by North American Indians are delineated. These advantages are: (1) a relatively large number of tribes (N=37) were all exposed to what was more or iess the same revitalization movement; (2) information on the degree to which each tribe accepted the movement is available from a source contemporary to the event and (3) information relating to some of the social characteristics of these tribes is available from Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas. The sample thus provides what is probably a unique opportunity for quantitatively testing several hypotheses relating to the acceptance of revitalization movements. After ascertaining that diffusion alone could not account for acceptance of the Ghost Dance, several other hypotheses, derived from different theoretical frameworks, were tested. Thus, using a "cultural deprivation " argument, it was predicted, and found, that those tribes recently deprived (because they were living in areas in which the buffalo had only recently been exterminated) were far more likely to accept the Ghost Dance than those not recently deprived. The assertion-implicit in Worsley's analysis of Cargo Cults-that acceptance of a revitalization movement would vary inversely with degree of political centralization was not supported by the data. Finally, based upon a consideration of the social conditions promoting '