A Note on Emergent Folk Cultures and World Culture ChangeAuthor(s): Arden R. KingSource: Social Forces, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Mar., 1953), pp. 234-237Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2574220 .

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234 SOCIAL FORCES

lobbyist for special interests, the majority of political campaigners, the advertisers who mis- represent their products' virtues, the editors and commentators who slant the news as a "public service," and those who "legally" assign wealth to relatives in order to disclaim improper influence in corporations or to evade responsibility to creditors or tax-collectors.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL INDECISION

Transitional society as a type characteristically postpones social decision through the social and personal mechanisms discussed above. This prop- erty is the clue to the deep-seated social problems of complex, changing societies-the "problem" societies which seem to weave intricate patterns of irrationality as they submit to change in the very process of denying change. But what can we learn from our general analysis that is of signifi- cance for contemporary "problem" societies?

First, in the concept of social indecision we possess a tool for understanding the basic obsta- cles to change and development in modern so- cieties and for predicting the probability of genu- ine change in specific societies.

Second, the analysis of social indecision in the

transitional type enables us to explain the diffi- culties and the limitations of modern planning ventures. To a large extent, social indecision under- lies indifference to the need for planning and to particular planning mechanisms.

A possible consequence of these insights is, third, a more sociologically relevant approach to social planning in modern transitional societies. The technical perfection of planning programs constitutes a mere theoretical exercise unless social indecision and its bases are recognized by planners. Basic to planning, our analysis suggests, is competent research on the degree of social indecision, its structural components, and the conditions which support its continuation. Thus, a preparatory phase of planning should emphasize the necessity for social decision, the confrontation of a given society with a long-neglected reality: its major problems, its resources, its limitations, its underlying goals and needs. Social planning may then become an evolving, informed strategy for controlling the process of change by selecting acceptable potentialities of development and by guiding transitional society to a more stable equilibrium that can withstand the impact of further, unplanned innovations.

A NOTE ON EMERGENT FOLK CULTURES AND WORLD CULTURE CHANGE

ARDEN R. KING Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University

THE nature of so-called folk cultures and T their distribution throughout the world

has long been argued, and their reaction upon contact with western European culture has been studied in some detail. It is well recognized that the process of culture change initiated by these contacts has a drastic effect upon the lives of many people. Despite these studies and the attempts at the definition of the nature of folk cultures and the delineation of the processes of acculturation, little has been done in a systematic way with the present condition of these cultures.

There appears to be a fundamental unity of these cultures which has been loosely characterized by the term "folk." Redfield's definition with some modifications recognizes this unity, but offers no way to take into account the manifold

variations of content and intensity. The attempts to define folk cultures have generally led to the establishment of a folk-urban polarity. The difficulty with this scheme, however, is that the poles of urban and folk cultures are easily recog- nized and described, but the vast number of cultures which partake of both qualities are not readily amenable to classification or systematic description. This condition then demands a re- consideration of the nature of folk cultures and an attempt to define "urbanness."

Instead of a descriptive definition of folk cul- tures it would perhaps be better to utilize one which attempts to delineate the over-all nature of a folk culture. From a perusal of the definitions in the literature it seems that the quality which stands out is that cultures defined as folk are char-

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EMERGENT FOLK CULTURES AND WORLD CULTURE CHANGE 235

acterized by the sharing of a common value sys- tem and common goals. Further, these values and goals are activated and sought through the common action of nearly the total group-this activation constitutes nearly all of the culture action which is available to the group. This means that the cultural value system permeates all aspects of life and is a conscious factor in daily activity. This also means that face-to-face inter- action is paramount or, at least, that substitute symbols are present. Thus, unlike the more com- plex cultures where secondary value systems and goals tend to obscure the central value system and even at times displace it, the folk culture is one in which there is no serious disagreement as to the ultimate goals of the culture-the folk culture is highly integrated not because of such factors as kinship emphasis but because of the shared central value system and goal struc- ture.

Ideally a distinction must be made between folk cultures capable of supporting populations larger than bands, of producing food, and stable enough to arrive at permanent geographical set- tlement and the insurance of a cultural system of security. In other words, the distinction between hunting and gathering cultures and cultures with artificial production of food or an abundance of natural food supplies is a valid one. However, the bulk of the folk cultures of the world falls in the second category; for this reason, we are pri- marily concerned with these cultures in this paper. Thus, as long as a group shares value goals, and is integrated because of these things, a very strong quality of the folk adheres to the culture, thus making it possible for cultures to remain folk in nature even when in active interaction with urban cultures, or even when part of one. Unless the quality of folk culture is viewed in this way one is left with a dilemma, since the enumerated characteristics given by many writers leave one with two easily discernible culture types, the pure folk and the pure urban, with only a few of the cultures in the world falling easily into the type condition. A good example of this difficulty is India where complexity of cul- ture is great and urban conditions obtain, but much of the folk aspect is retained through the caste system.

In this case the term urban is a highly confusing one unless one makes an attempt to distinguish between kinds of urban situations. Obviously, the urban situation in India up to now has been

vastly different from that which has existed in western Europe for the past 150 years. Likewise, certain types of urban situations are more con- ducive to the retention of folk characteristics than others. Thus, urban centers organized around sacred associations, trade, political administra- tion, and the like are vastly different from the modern industrial urban situation. The former because of their insularity and one-mindedness have relatively little effect on the folk qualities of cultures in the area which they serve and draw from since they do not project the urban to the remainder of the area with intensity which the industrial urban center does. And it is precisely the industrial urban situation of western European origin which is making itself felt over the world today.

It would appear that the degree of folk quality retention and the degree of modern industrial quality allow us to arrive at some sort of scale for the classification of the cultures which today lie between the two poles of the folk-urban classifi- cation. It would seem then that the essential quality of folk cultures is the unity of values and goals held by the social group, and that, even though there may be much modification of the culture, as long as this is maintained we are dealing with a folk culture. Today, for the most part, when this breaks down, the nature of the culture becomes urban. However, that the folk nature can be retained in certain urban situations is evident as is seen in India and much of Asia as wefl as among the peasant groups of Europe and Latin America. In the past one hundred years the industrial urban culture of western Europe has greatly modified other urban culture types and has sent its influences to almost all of the folk cultures. This highlights an important point re- garding all folk cultures-namely, that there are few, if any, which are not in a condition which might be termed emergent, that is, emergent from a condition of culture which we have defined as folk.

It is to be emphasized that here we are not con- cerned with culture change in individual cultures, but with a condition that appears to be nearly world-wide. We are not dealing with culture change in which cultures influence each other in a unique fashion, but with a culture change re- sulting from the impact of Euro-American in- dustrial urban culture upon the folk cultures of the world. Observations of this sort are not new; what seems to be significant is the fact that we

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236 SOCIAL FORCES

have apparently reached a point in time where nearly all folk cultures are emergent.

The nature of this emergence evinces itself mainly in the character of the shifts in goal struc- tures, the means at hand for the attainment of goals, and the value system. Again it should be emphasized that the significant thing is the fact that the changes stimulated throughout the world of folk cultures have come about through the diffusion of Euro-American urban patterns thus giving a more or less uniform source of cul- ture change. Thus, we find as common denomina- tors: the breakdown in the old world view which in general involves an attempt to reconcile human activities and non-human activities, the growing importance of secularism and individualism, changes in the economic aspect of life with in- dustrialization and urbanization being the moti- vating forces whether we are dealing with agri- culture or industry, money economy, and the impact of western European ideas of political behavior and nationalism, to mention some of the more important ones. It is not assumed hlere that all the factors mentioned above are present in all folk cultures to the same degree of intensity. The very nature of culture diffusion ensures a selection or emphasis of some of these factors by individual folk cultures. In other words, what we have as a world condition is the breakdown of old goal systems and the creation of new goals in these emergent folk cultures. In most of these cultures we find much disparity between the new goals and the accessibility to the means for the attainment of goals.

Perhaps the most difficult situation in which the individual in these emergent cultures finds himself is with regard to the areas of experience which for him are unpredictable-the areas of the unknown in his experience. The old ways of accommodating such areas of experience no longer serve since old patterns of cultural inter- action do not apply to the new situations. The problem presented to the social group of the newly emergent folk culture is one in which old goals have lost their importance because of the lack of efficacious means for their attainment, and the fact that new means have not been acquired which will allow the attainment of new goals which they may have adopted. The effect of the change in goal structure of the individual finds a parallel in the attempt at reintegration of the culture by the social group. Thus, in many areas

of the world for both the individual and the group we find that a condition of stability and predicta- bility has been succeeded by one of instability, that with the loss of the old goal system the sys- tem of security has given way to insecurity for the individual and the group.

It seems likely that part of the attractiveness of nationalism lies in the fact that among the areas of the world where folk cultures are emergent nationalism offers some degree of reintegration formed around the idea that this is a new goal which can be used by all groups. A further con- jecture might be made: at the present time in some areas of the world, nationalism, and possibly movements in the direction of a totalitarian state, is reinforced by the emergent folk culture as a way of regaining a stable goal structure and a group unity which has been lost. The growing influence of the western urban culture with its attendant industrialization presents the members of emergent folk cultures not only with new goals and makes their attainment more difficult, but, with increasing secularization of life, it is also accompanied by one of its own major problems: namely, that Euro-American culture does not fulfill the func- tion of providing its members a stable system of security.

Thus, we find the individual of these cultures faced not only with the problem of finding new goals and the means of attaining them, but, as well, the dilemma that if he does fully adopt the goals of Western urban culture and has acquired the means of attaining them, he also has acquired a new form of insecurity. However, the latter state of affairs is a rare thing. Generally the in- dividual finds himself in a situation where the old goal and value systems have either broken down or have lost their integration to the point where they do not function in a manner satisfactory to the individual. It is at this point that the indi- vidual must cast about for new ways of alleviating insecurity. As is most often the case, he attempts to adopt the goals and values of Western urban culture. However, he generally discovers that the means for the attainment of the new goals are not readily available. This disparity between the goals and the means to the goals is the fact which seems most significant when we attempt to clearly depict the insecurity of the individual members of the emergent folk culture, for the old goals are not available nor are the new.

The situation with which we are confronted at

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EMERGENT FOLK CULTURES AND WORLD CULTURE CHANGE 237

the moment is one which represents a culmination of culture change initiated by the exploration, conquest, and exploitation of much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America by western Europe and, in a later phase, by the United States. The process has beeni one in which domination has been estab- lished and maintained at the same time as culture patterns antithetical to domination have been diffused, those mentioned above as characteristics of modern urban culture. In most instances, as indicated above, the goals have been adopted in a modified form, but the means to these goals are far from being easy of access.

Newly emergent folk cultures seek solutions to the new problems posed by new goals, and the attainment of these, in a folk manner. This is mainly so because the folk manner of solving human problems has not been forgotten nor is it foreign to the experience of most individuals. However, the very fact that these cultures are emergent precludes a solution of this sort. Faced with the rising dominance of the industrial urban culture the individual seeks solutions which are in some way analogous to those of the folk cul- ture.

The individual of the emergent folk culture today is confronted with two contending culture systems which are alike in that they stress in- dustrial urbanism and all that entails in spite of the differences in values and goals. Both of these systems offer the individual of the emergent folk culture solutions to his dilemma. In a situation of this sort it is necessary that we have some sort of predictability concerning the effect of the propa- ganda of the USSR and the United States on the individuals in newly emergent folk cultures. Let me repeat, significant in this situation is the fact that most of these cultures are newly emergent, aild the nature of the old culture and its ways of solving human problems are not forgotten.

In this light the propaganda of the USSR with its stress upon group cooperation and group activ- ity directed towards non-comiplex goals occupies

an extremely advantageous position. The solu- tions offered are of a simple nature, bear likenesses to the old culture's methods, and thus the propa- ganda is extremely effective in many parts of the world. It is ironic that the western European countries and the United States have provided most of the new goals in these emergent cultures, or at least have stimulated their adoption. Thus, such things as freedom from foreign domination, nationalism, and the desirability of an industrial and urban way of life have all been diffused to large areas of the world. Unfortunately, utilizing the system of values of our culture, the means of attaining these new goals and the solution of the problems posed by their adoption are slow of utility and difficult of achievement, while the need for goal attainment is urgent among these cultures. Anyone who has listened to the broad- casts of the Voice of America will agree, I think, that our propaganda leaves much to be desired. Without going into a detailed discussion, I think it may be said that our propagandists need far greater insight into the conflicts posed by the desertions of old value and goal systems and the adoption of new forms.

I do not pretend to claim that this aspect of the present world crisis is the onily factor which must be taken into consideration if we are to understand and predict behavior in other parts of the world. Such things as the structure of power systems and the struggle for power, and the complicated economic problems, are equally if not more important. However, it appears that we are dealing with a world-wide phenomenion which has as its distinguishing characteristic the emer- gence of cultures termed folk into something that may be the beginning of the vaunted world cul- ture. The emergent folk cultures are a powerful force in the new world situation. The implications of this emergence are manifold but not discrete; nevertheless, the emergence is clear, posing prob- lems not only of a scientific nature, but of national and international character as well.

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