Diffusion of Culture

APHG Unit 3

Cultural Hearths:

• Definition: The origin points of cultural traits, innovations, and ideas. These are the places where new cultural elements develop and then spread to other areas. Think of them as the “birthplaces” of cultural practices. They are not necessarily static; a hearth can shift or even disappear as cultural practices evolve and spread. The spread of a cultural element doesn’t necessarily mean the hearth loses its importance.

• Examples:

  • Mesopotamia (agriculture, writing),
  • Egypt (hieroglyphics, irrigation),
  • Indus Valley (urban planning, sanitation),
  • China (silk, porcelain, Confucianism),
  • Greece (democracy, philosophy),
  • Rome (law, architecture), etc

• Largest Modern Hearth Arguable): The United States is often cited as a major modern cultural hearth due to its influence in areas like popular culture (music, film, fashion), technology, and political ideologies.

Diffusion Processes:

• Relocation Diffusion:

  • Definition: The spread of cultural traits through the physical movement of people from one place to another. The Culture is literally carried with the migrants.
  • Examples: The spread of Christianity through missionary travels, the spread of pizza from Italy to the United States, the spread of specific dialects of languages through migration patterns, the diffusion of culinary traditions by immigrant communities.
  • Characteristics: The original hearth may retain some influence, but the Cultural Trait often adapts and changes in the new location. The intensity of the trait may decrease with distance from the origin point unless reinforced by further migration.
  • Types: Forced migration (e.g., the transatlantic slave trade) and voluntary migration (e.g., European colonization) both contribute to relocation diffusion.

• Contagious Diffusion:

  • Definition: The spread of a cultural trait through direct contact and proximity. It spreads rapidly and widely from the hearth, like a disease.
  • Examples: The spread of a popular song through social media, the adoption of a new fashion trend, the rapid adoption of a new technology, the spread of a particular language in a densely populated area.
  • Characteristics: Requires close proximity for the trait to spread effectively. The rate of diffusion is often influenced by barriers (such as mountains or bodies of water) and the accessibility of the trait. It tends to be more uniform around the hearth, with decreasing intensity as distance increases.
  • Limitations: Contagious diffusion may be hindered by cultural barriers, or lack of access to the information or technology being diffused.

• Other Diffusion Processes (not mentioned in original notes, but relevant):

  • Hierarchical Diffusion: Spread from influential people or places to less influential people or places (e.g., a fashion trend starting in a major city and spreading to smaller towns).
  • Stimulus Diffusion: The underlying idea of a cultural trait is adopted, but the specific form is modified (e.g., the adoption of the concept of fast food in different cultures, resulting in variations of the original concept).
  • Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion: A cultural trait spreads from a smaller or less influential place to a larger or more influential place (e.g., a fashion trend originating in a smaller town becoming popular in major cities).