Social Borders: Definitions of Diversity [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract

Discovery of cultural diversity was catalytic for the development of anthropology, and diversity has remained a justification for anthropology as a distinct way of studying man. Paradoxically, a new kind of diversity in the range of societies studied by anthropologists is now a severe challenge to established concepts and methods. Much of this new diversity results from an increase in the numbers and kinds of social differentiation anthropologists observe and analyze. The diversity of ways to distinguish individuals from one another is the result of a universal human activity, the definition of social borders. The past successes of anthropology in seeing through diversity to structural universality suggest that the definition of social borders is not only a problem anthropology needs to face, but one it is particularly well-equipped to resolve. The first step in the search for the basic dimensions of border definition is a vocabulary for description and comparison of numbers and kinds of borders. However, social borders are not simply present or absent in different settings; they exist in many degrees of definition. This paper presents a framework for identification of degrees or levels of border definition and a set of propositions about (1) consequences of different degrees of definition for communication and contact across borders; (2) factors that stimulate an increase in degree of border definition; (3) conditions which promote redefinition of borders rather than their weakening through acculturation or assimilation; and (4) conditions under which most borders in a community are likely to be relatively sharply defined.