Recognizing and Understanding Diversity: Culture Areas, Diffusion, and Change Through Time

As part of the destruction of the Moundbuilder Myth, the discipline of anthropology developed. John Wesley Powell Cyrus Thomas Frank Hamilton Cushing Lewis Henry Morgan

Key elements behind the culture area concept: Cultural ecology and adaptation (cultural evolution) Form, Function and Meaning Diffusion Oral Tradition Cultural Ecology & Adaptation Out of their data gathering and that of those who followed, the culture area concept developed.

Cultural Ecology, Adaptation, and Cultural Evolution Earlier notions of cultural evolution from the late 1800s, especially Unilinear Evolution, were discarded. In unilinear evolution, cultures evolved from savages to barbarians to civilized. The notion of progress was associated with it. Indians were savages. Association with Social Darwinism It became part of "Manifest Destiny." Progress & Unilinear Evolution

Julian Steward Multilinear Evolution: A More Realistic Model Cultures change at different rates based on adjustments to environments. Cultural ecology :cultures adapt to the changes in the natural and social environments in which they live. Cultural ecology: the dominant viewpoint of most anthropologists and many other social scientists. Multilinear evolution and cultural ecology are related concepts that help us account for the extreme diversity of American Indian cultures.

Form, Function, and Meaning Form—physical characteristics or attributes of an object or concept Function—the role of the object or idea, what it does Meaning—what the object or idea means to the people who have or use it

Diffusion and its processes Stimulus diffusion—ideas, from simple contact Single trait diffusion—a few things, from trade Complex diffusion—whole cultural complexes, from colonization

Independent Invention Independent Invention: roughly the same ideas, concepts or physical forms appear in different places without contact between the places Just because things seem to be alike doesn’t mean they are so because of contact and diffusion! Similar environmental and social conditions lead to similar adaptations.

Oral Tradition Historicity―Just how historical is it? Does it contain temporal information that we can use? Does it contain information about geography we can use? Does it contain material "markers" that are archaeologically recoverable? Oral tradition's advantage is its immediacy, but that causes you to think in terms of a "present" past

Alfred Kroeber Organizing the information: The functional prerequisites of culture People Language Territory/Technology Social Organization Ideology (belief systems)

There was huge variation in languages.

Language Variation For such a small population, Indian languages are extremely diverse. 57 families grouped into 9 macro-families or phyla 300 distinct languages 2000 dialects California—at least 20 families West of Rockies—17 more Rest of the continent—20 more Today English is the most commonly spoken language, and many native languages are gone or will soon be so.

Cultures Areas or Food Areas?

The Culture Area Concept

The Problem with Culture Areas Actually, these categories have entered into the popular culture in a big way. They are now the main descriptors of Indian groups. One needs to question whether it is still a useful concept: It locks Indian groups in time, using descriptions of groups at the time of Contact. Pan-Indian cultural activities and massive influences of media have "blended" lots of cultural traits. Doesn't account for the ability of groups to adjust to white and other Indian influences.