33983948 BATESON Gregory Culture Contact and Schismogenesis (1)

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199. Culture Contact and Schismogenesis

Author(s): Gregory BatesonSource: Man, Vol. 35 (Dec., 1935), pp. 178-183Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2789408

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Nos. 198-199] MAN [December,935.

to and modificationsf the Pungwe type brought bout by long continued ontact withforeigninfluence t a port Mozambique)whichhas been frequented y Asiatic and European seamenformanycenturies. The basal design nd itsmaterialmust have, however, common riginwiththePungwecanoe. If we grant his,thegeographical ange ofthe African ark canoe wouldseem toextendfrom outh Rhodesia PungweRiver)eastwards o the coast of Portuguese ast Africa.

24thSeptember, 935. JAMES HORNELL.Culture Contact and Schismogenesis. By Gregoryateson,M.A., St. John'sCollege, ambridge.

TheMemorandumrittenya CommitteeftheSocialSciencesResearch ouncilMAN,1935,162) has stimulatedme to put forward pointof viewwhichdiffersonsiderablyrom

theirs; nd,though he beginningfthis rticlemay ppear tobe critical ftheirMemorandum,wishto make it clearfrom heoutset that regard s a real contributionny serious ttempt o devisecategories or hestudyof culture ontact. Moreover,ince there re severalpassages n theMemo-randum among hem he Definition) hich do not perfectly nderstand,my criticismsre offeredwith somehesitation,nd are directednot so muchagainstthe Committees againstcertain rrorsprevalentmong nthropologists.

(1) The usesof suchsystemsfcategories.-Ingeneral t is unwiseto constructystems fthis

sortuntilthe problemswhich heyare designed o elucidatehave been clearly ormulated;nd sofar s I can see,the categories rawnup bythe Committee ave been constructedot n referenceoany specificallyefined roblems, ut to throw general ighton " the problem ofacculturation,whiletheproblemtself emains ague.

(2) Fromthis t follows hat our immediateneed is not so much the constructionf a set ofcategorieswhichwill throw light n all theproblems, ut rather heschematic ormulationftheproblemsn sucha waythattheymaybe separatelynvestigable.

(3) Although he Committeeeave theirproblems ndefined, e mayfrom careful eading fthecategories ather oughlywhat questions hey re asking f thematerial. It seems hattheCom-mitteehave,as a matter ffact,been nfluenced ythe sortof questionswhich dministratorssk ofanthropologists-" s it a goodthing o use forcen culture ontacts? " How can wemake a given" peopleaccepta certain ortof trait?" and so on. In response o thistypeof questionwe findnthedefinitionf acculturationn emphasis pondifferencen culture etween hegroups n contactand upon the resulting hanges; and such dichotomiess that between elementsforcedupon a" peopleor received oluntarilyy them" may ikewise e regarded s symptomaticfthis hinkinginterms f dministrativeroblems.The samemaybe said ofthecategories .,A, B, andC, accept-

ance,' ' adaptation' and ' reaction.'(4) We may agree that answers re badly needed to these questionsof administrationnd,

further,hat a studyofculture ontacts s likely o givethese nswers. But it is almost ertain hatthescientificormulationf theproblems f contactwillnot follow hese ines. It is as if n thecon-structionfcategories or hestudyof criminology e startedwitha dichotomyfindividualsntocriminalnd non-criminal-and,ndeed,that curious ciencewas hampered or longwhilebythisvery ttempt o define ' criminal ype.'

(5) The Memorandums basedupona fallacy:thatwe can classifyhe traits f a culture nder

suchheadings s economic, eligious, tc. We are asked,forexample, o classify raits ntothreeclasses,presentedespectivelyecauseof: (a) economic rofitrpoliticaldominance; b) desirabilityof bringingbout conformityo values of donorgroup;and (c) ethical nd religious onsiderations.This dea,that eachtraithas either single unctionr at leastsomeonefunction hich vertops herest, eads by extension o the idea thata culture an be subdivided nto 'institutions'wherethebundleof traitswhichmakeup one institutionre alike in theirmajorfunctions.The weakness fthismethodof sub-dividing culturehas been conclusively emonstratedy Malinowski nd hispupils,whohave shown hat almost hewhole f a culturemaybe seen variously s a mechanism ormodifyingnd satisfyinghesexual needsofthe ndividuals, r for heenforcementfthe norms f

1 In any case it is clear that in a scientificstudy of processes and natural laws this invocation of freewillcan have no place.

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December, 935.] MAN [No. 199

behaviour, r forsupplying he individualswithfood.2 From this exhaustivedemonstration emustexpectthatany single raitof a culturewillproveon examination o be not simply conomicor religious rstructural,ut topartake f ll these ualities ccordingo thepoint fviewfromwhichwe look at it. If this be trueof a culture een n synchronicection, hen t must lso applyto thediachronic rocesses f ulture ontact ndchange; nd we must xpect hatfor heoffering,cceptance

orrefusal fevery rait here re simultaneous auses ofan economic, tructural,exual andreligiousnature.(6) Fromthis tfollows hat ourcategoriesreligious,' economic,' tc., re not real subdivisions

which re present n the cultureswhichwe study,but aremerely bstractionshichwe make for urownconveniencewhen we set out to describe ultures n words. Theyare notphenomena resentin culture, utare labelsforvariouspoints fviewwhichwe adopt n ourstudies. In handling uchabstractions e mustbe careful o avoidWhitehead's fallacy fmisplaced oncreteness," fallacyintowhich, or xample, heMarxianhistorians allwhen heymaintain hat economic phenomena'are primary.'

With this preamble,we may now consider n alternative cheme for the studyof contactphenomena.

(7) Scope ofthenquiry.-I suggest hatwe shouldconsider nder hehead of culture ontact'notonly hosecases nwhich hecontact ccursbetween wocommunities ithdifferentultures ndresults n profound isturbance f the culture fone or both groups; butalso cases ofcontactwithina single ommunity. n thesecases thecontact s between ifferentiatedroups f ndividuals, .g.,between hesexes,between ldand young, etween ristocracynd plebs,between lans, tc.,groupswhich ivetogethernapproximatequilibrium. wouldeven extend he dea of contact so widelyas to include hoseprocesseswhereby child s moulded nd trained o fit he culturento whichhewas born,3 ut for hepresentwe may confine urselves o contactsbetween roupsof ndividuals,withdifferentulturalnormsofbehaviour n each group.

(8) If we consider he possible end of the drasticdisturbanceswhichfollow ontactsbetweenprofoundlyifferentommunities, e seethatthechangesmust heoreticallyesult n one or other fthefollowingatterns:

(a) the complete usion f the originally ifferentroups,(b) the elimination f one or both groups,(c) thepersistence f both groups n dynamic quilibriumwithin nemajor community.(9) My purposenextending he dea of contact o cover he conditionsf differentiationnside

single ulture s to use ourknowledge f thesequiescent tatesto throw ightupon thefactorswhichare at work n statesof disequilibrium. t may be easy to obtain a knowledge f the factors rom

2 Cf. Malinowski, Sexual Life and Crime and Custom;A. I. Richards, Hungerand Work. This question of thesubdivision of a culture into 'institutions' is not quiteas simple as I have indicated; and, in spite oftheirownworks, I believe that the London School still adheresto a theorythat some such division is practicable. It islikely that confusion arises from the fact that certain

native peoples-perhaps all, but in any case those ofWesternEurope-actually think that theircultureis sosubdivided. Various cultural phenomena also contributesomething towards such a subdivision, e.g., (a) thedivision of labour and differentiation f norms of be-haviour between different roups of individuals in thesame community, nd (b) an emphasis, present n certaincultures,upon the subdivisions of place and time uponwhich behaviour is ordered. These phenomena lead tothepossibility, n such cultures,ofdubbing all behaviourwhich, for example, takes place in church between11.30 and 12.30 on Sundays as 'religious.' But even inthe study of such culturesthe anthropologistmust lookwithsome suspicionupon his classificationoftraits into

institutions nd must expect to finda great deal ofover-lapping between various institutions.

An analogous fallacy occurs in psychology,and con-sists in regarding behaviour as classifiable according tothe impulses which inspire it, e.g., into such categoriesas self-protective,assertive, sexual, acquisitive, etc.Here, too, confusionresultsfromthe fact that not only

the psychologist, but also the individual studied, isproneto think n termsof these categories. The psycho-logistswould do well to accept theprobabilitythat everybit ofbehaviour s-at least in a well ntegratedndividual-simultaneously relevant to all these abstractions.

3 The present scheme is oriented towards the studyof social rather than psychological processes, but aclosely analogous scheme might be constructed forthestudy of psychopathology. Here the idea of 'contact'would be studied, especially in the contexts of themouldingof the individual, and theprocessesofschismo-genesis would be seen to play an importantpart not onlyin accentuating the maladjustmentsof the deviant, butalso in assimilating the normal individual to his group.

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December,935.] MAN [No. 199

(14) Persistence of bothgroupsin dynamic equilibrium.-This is probably the most instructive ofthe possible end results of contact, since the factors active in the dynamic equilibriumare likely to beidentical or analogous with those which, in disequilibrium, are active in cultural change. Our firsttask is to study the relationshipsobtainingbetween groups of ndividuals withdifferentiated ehaviourpatterns, and later to consider what light these relationships throw upon what are more usually called

'contacts.' Every anthropologist who has been in the field has had opportunityof studying suchdifferentiated roups.

(15) The possibilities of differentiation f groups are by no means infinite, ut fall clearly nto twocategories (a) cases in which the relationship is chiefly symmetrical,e.g., in the differentiation fmoieties, clans, villages and the nations of Europe; and (b) cases in which the relationship s comple-mentary, .g., in the differentiationf social strata, classes, castes, age grades, and, in some cases, thecultural differentiation etween the sexes.4 Both these types of differentiation ontain dynamicelements, such that when certain restrainingfactors are removed the differentiationr split betweenthe groups increases progressively owards either breakdown or a new equilibrium.

(16) Symmetrical ifferentiation.-Tothis category may be referred all those cases in which theindividuals in two groups A and B have the same aspirations and the same behaviour patterns, butare differentiatedn the orientation of these patterns. Thus members of group A exhibit behaviourpatterns A,B,C, in their dealings with each other, but adopt the patterns X,Y,Z, in theirdealings withmembers of group B. Similarly, group B adopt the patterns A,B,C, among themselves, but exhibitX,Y,Z, n dealing with group A. Thus a position is set up in whichthe behaviour X,Y,Z, is the stan-dard reply to X,Y,Z. This position contains elements which may lead to progressive differentiationor schismogenesis long the same lines. If, for example, the patterns X,Y,Z include boasting, weshall see that there is a likelihood, f boasting is the reply to boasting, that each group will drive theother into excessive emphasis of the pattern, a process which if not restrained can only leadto more and more extreme rivalry and ultimately to hostility and the breakdown of the wholesystem.

(17) Complementary ifferentiation.-Tothis category we may refer all those cases in which thebehaviour and aspirations of the members of the two groups are fundamentally different. Thusmembers of group A treat each other with patterns L,M,N, and exhibit the patternsO,P,Q, in dealingswithgroup B. In reply to O,P,Q, the members of group B exhibit the patterns U,V,W, but amongthemselves they adopt patterns R,S,T. Thus it comes about that O,P,Q is the reply to U,V,W, andvice versa. This differentiationmay become progressive. If, for example, the series, O,P,Q includespatterns culturally regarded as assertive,while U,V,W includes cultural submissiveness, it is likelythat submissiveness will promote further ssertiveness which in turn will promotefurther ubmissive-ness. This schismogenesis, nless it is restrained, eads to a progressive unilateral distortion of thepersonalities of the members of both groups, which results in mutual hostility between them andmust end in the breakdown of the system.

(18) Reciprocity.-Though relationships between groups can broadly be classified into twocategories, symmetrical and complementary,this subdivision is to some extent blurred by anothertype of differentiationwhich we may describe as reciprocal. In this type the behaviour patterns

X and Y are adopted by members of each group in their dealings with the other group, but insteadof the symmetrical ystem wherebyX is the reply to X and Y is the reply to Y, we find here thatX is the reply to Y. Thus in every single instance the behaviour is asymmetrical,but symmetry sregained over a large number of instances since sometimes group A exhibit X to which group B replywithY, and sometimes group A exhibit Y and group B reply with X. Cases, in which group A some-times sell sago to group B and the latter sometimes sell the same commodityto A, may be regarded

4 Cf. Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament,1935.Of the communitiesdescribed in this book, the Arapeshand theMundugumorhave a preponderantlyymmetricalrelationship between the sexes, while the Tchambulihave a complementary elationship. Amongthe latmul,a tribein the same area, which I have studied, the rela-

tionship between the sexes is complementary,but onratherdifferentines from hat ofthe Chambuli. I hopeshortlyto publish a book on the Iatmul with sketchesof their culturefrom the points of view (a), (b) and (e)outlined in paragraph 10.

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December, 1935.] MAN [Nos. 199-200

formerreciprocal commercial behaviour.5 On the other hand, if we consider the effects f comple-mentaryschismogenesisupon the reciprocal behaviour patterns,we see that one-halfof the reciprocalpattern is liable to lapse. -Where formerly oth groups exhibited both X and Y, a systemgraduallyevolves in which one of the groups exhibitsonly X, while the otherexhibits only Y. In fact,behaviourwhichwas formerly eciprocal s reduced to a typical complementary attern and is likelyafterthat tocontribute to the complementary

schismogenesis.(d) It is certainthat either type of schismogenesisbetween two groups can be checked by factorswhich unite the two groups either n loyalty or opposition to some outside element. Such an outsideelement may be eithera symbolic ndividual, an enemy people or some quite impersonal circumstance-the lion will lie down with the lamb if only it rain hard enough. But it must be noted that wherethe outside element is a person or group ofpersons, the relationship of the combined groupsA and Bto the outside group will always be itselfa potentially schismogenic relationship of one or the othertype. Examination of multiple systems ofthis kind is badly needed and especially we need to knowmore about the systems (e.g., military hierarchies) n which the distortion of personality s modifiedin the middle groups of the hierarchyby permitting he individuals to exhibit respect and submissionin dealings with higher groups while they exhibit assertiveness and pride in dealing with the lower.

(e) In the case ofthe European situation, there is one otherpossibility-a special case of control

by diversion of attention to outside circumstances. It is possible that those responsible forthe policyof classes and nations might become conscious of the processes with which they are playing andco-operate in an attempt to solve the difficulties. This, however, is not very likely to occur sinceanthropology and social psychology lack the prestige necessary to advise; and, without such advice,governmentswillcontinue to react to each other's reactions ratherthan pay attention to circumstances.

(21) In concluLsion, e may turn to the problems of the administrator faced with a black-whiteculture contact. His first ask is to decide which of the end results outlined in paragraph 8 is desirableand possible of attainment. This decision he must make without hypocrisy. If he chooses fusion,then he must endeavour to contrive every step so as to promote the conditions of consistencywhichare outlined (as problems for investigation) in paragraph 10. If he chooses that both groups shallpersist in some formof dynamic equilibrium, then he must contrive to establish a system in whichthe possibilities of schismogenesis are properly compensated or balanced against each other. But at

every step in the scheme which I have outlined there are problems which must be studied by trainedstudents and which when solved will contribute,not only to applied sociology, but to the very basisof our understanding of human beings in society. GREGORY BATESON.

The Diffusionof the Horse to the Flatheads. By Harry Turney-High,M.A., Ph.D., StateUniversityfMontana.

Introductoryote.-For thebenefitf thoseworkers hosefields fconsistentndeavourare distantfromNorth-west nited States, the following ote ofreview s offered.The UUFlatheads are a peopleofwesternMontana, peaking languagewithinheSalishanfamily,nd areofPlateau typeculture.

Thepeople hemselvesigorouslybjectto theterm lathead nreferenceothemselves,lthoughmany therndians o callthem, articularlyhose o theeast. Theycallthemselveshe alish se*ic).Most ofthetribes o thewestspeakingmemberanguagesofthe Salishanstock, venas far

as thePacificOcean,alsorefer o theFlatheadsbysomevariant fthisword.Formanycenturies heir rincipal omehas been ntheBitterRootValley ofwesternMontana.

At sometime ong ago they eemto havemigrated romnotherocale. Teithas publishedmaterialindicatinghat heir riginal omewaseast ontheGreatPlains.' Thegreatmajority fmy nformants,

5 In this, as in the other examples given, no attemptis made to consider the schismogenesis from all thepoints ofview outlined nparagraph 10. Thus, inasmuchas the economic aspect of the matter is not here beingconsidered,the effects f the slump upon the schismo-genesis are ignored. A complete study would be sub-divided into separate sections, each treating one ofthe aspects of the phenomena.

1 Teit, James A., I Salishan Tribes of the WesternPlateaus,' 45th Annual Rept., Bureau of American

Ethnology, 1927-1928. Perhaps it is impossibleto solvethis question. All that I can say formy own positionis that I have lived with the Flatheads fornine years incontrastwithMr. Teit's extremely hort visit, and thatI have used many informants n comparisonwith Mr.Teit's almostcompleterelianceon the ate NlichelRevais.

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33983948 BATESON Gregory Culture Contact and Schismogenesis (1)