Page 49 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Unit 6: Approaches to the Study of Kinship: Cultural

As far as the culture-growth part of this ideology is concerned, critics have termed it as mysteri- Notes
ous ideology. In fact, this ideology is an effort of studying diffusion, limited to certain regions.
The other scholars too, have done the same. The ideology of the culture-cycle has been called
the Ideology of Historitative Culture.

Enculturation
Because of the studies by Whistler, which mere related to the field of culture and the studies by
Boas, related to inter transmission the attention of some American scholars was attracted to the
studies related to the effect and changes of one culture on the other. When the culture character-
istics diffuse, we term this phenomenon as Diffusion but when the entire life-style of one culture
undergoes change because of the effect of another culture, it is called Enculturation. Linton,
Redfield, Herscouvits, Helovle Beales, etc., have made a significant contribution in structur-
ing many definitive terms from Enculturation. For example, Herscouvits says, when a growing
child learns to follow his own cultural traditions, then such a phenomenon is called Encultura-
tion. The cultural characteristics and the exchange of schools may be called Trans Enculturation,
but the destablisation of one culture by the other is Enculturation. They can go together, but
often this one not happen. First, the effective culture breaks, but later on, in order to compensate
for the loss of its personality, to gets reactive. Such a reaction is called Re-Enculturation. One
such example, in India has been the Jharkhand agitation. After centuries of exploitation and
poverty, the tribes of the Chhota Nagpur region, strongly and consciously stood against it in the
form of an agitation and started demanding cultural, social, economic and political autonomy.
The studies on Enculturation are motivated by the sense that in the modern world, no culture
is pure or untouched. Another important fact is, that these studies are trustworthy, ideological
and an effort to fulfil definitive scientific importance than the speculative studies of the diffu-
sionists on the unwritten history.

6.5 Theory of Cultural Integration

Functionism
After getting satisfactory answers to the questions related to growth of culture and parallels, the
next question which the scholars raised was— ‘What is the intimate structure of a culture?’ Is it
a scattered and non-interrelated collection of the origination of agriculture, handicrafts, society
and humans. Otherwise, what is it that makes the culture totally meaningful.

The ideas presented by Malinosky and Redcliffe-Brown are known as
Functionalism.

Malinosky takes into account the definition of culture given by Toylor, but does not consider
it a para-biological reality. According to Malinosky, culture is such a medium or equipment,
which makes the physical, psyhological and high mental-intellectual existence possible. Since
all the aspects of culture, be it economic organisation, social organisation or related to religion
or-language-human needs, they are mutually inter-related in the same way as man’s needs,
which are basically inter-related. Thus, Malinosky does not believe in ruins, unrelated to cul-
ture. The developers have directly termed the dysfunctional cultural characteristics as runs of
the past. Malinosky condemned them by saying that there was no capability of finding a suit-
able place for the so called culture specific ruins. Nothing in culture is un-related. All the inti-
mate aspects of inter-related and no single characteristic has any meaning in itself, unless seen
in total context.

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