American Anthropologist · 1942 · 14 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesHistorySociologyCultural ChangeCultural HistoryInnovationCross-cultural AdaptationCross-cultural ExchangeCultural DifferenceCultural TransmissionModernityCross-cultural ContactCultural Change ProcessesCulture Contact
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.