Barth, On The Study of Social Change (1967)

On the Study of Social Change
Author(s): Fredrik Barth

Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 69, No. 6 (Dec., 1967), pp. 661-669
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/669670
Accessed: 15-12-2016 09:37 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
Wiley, American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to American Anthropologist
This content downloaded from 193.49.18.51 on Thu, 15 Dec 2016 09:37:47 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
On the Study of Social Change*
FREDRIK BARTH
University of Bergen
Traditional anthropological description in terms of pattern and custom, convenient a

purposes, results essentially in accounts that do not adequately portray change. Chan
handled if one looks at social behavior as allocations of time and resources. Analyses o
that the latter view makes possible seem more productive of insight into the nature of social
been the case with typological and comparative approaches.
of society in such terms that we see how it

THE anthropology
analytical to
contribution of modern
the understanding of persists, maintains itself, and changes through
social change has been limited, despite the fact time. This may mean recasting many of our
that our material is becoming increasingly rich terms for the description of social systems,
with most dramatic cases of change. I shall not merely adding a chapter of additional
use the opportunity that a brief and general data. To do the job of analyzing change ade-
discussion of the wide theme of social change quately may mean that we will do some of the
offers to make a preliminary diagnosis of why old jobs less adequately, or at least less simply,
this should be so, and to suggest certain re- than we have been doing. To someone who
quirements and reorientations that I feel are does not share this priority, the efforts may
necessary if we wish to remedy this situation. look unnecessarily complicated and relatively
I shall argue in favor of (a) a greater attention fruitless. But for those who give the under-
to the empirical study of the events of change, standing of change high priority, it is wishful
and a need for concepts that facilitate this; thinking to expect that we can build indis-
(b) the necessity for specification of the nature criminately on all the concepts that our disci-
of the continuity in a sequence of change, and pline has developed for other purposes.
the processual analyses that this entails; and Because of our general unwillingness to
(c) the importance of the study of institu- abandon well-established routines, studies
tionalization as an ongoing process. explicitly addressed to the investigation of
We should not -underestimate the effects change have been prone to contain descrip-
on our discipline that giving first priority totions
the of a social system at two points in
understanding of change may have. There time-or even at one point in time!-and then
has been a comfortable convention in social to rely on extrapolation between these two
anthropology till now of treating "social states, or from the one state, to indicate the
change" as if it were a topic of anthropological course of change. I feel that if we want to
investigation like "religion" or "domestic understand social change, we need concepts
organization," something that may be dis- that allow us to observe and describe the
cussed in addition to, and preferably subse- events of change. Our contribution as socia
quent to, other substantive fields in the de- anthropologists must lie in providing such
scription of social systems. But if we couch our primary materials for understanding th
description of these aspects of society as if we processes; it lies in our powers of observatio
were dealing with forms that do not entail out there where change is happening today
and reflect processes, we cannot expect that and not in producing secondary data by deduc
the terms and concepts we develop in this de- tion and extrapolation. If this means that w
scription will serve us with equal facility in the must recast our very description of soci
description of changing forms. systems in order to accommodate these dat
To understand social change, what we need about the events of change, that makes ou
to do as social anthropologists is to describe all task more difficult but also more interestin
* Plenary address to the American Anthropological Associa-
tion, 1966. Publication of this address is made possible by a con-
The reason
tribution from the Wenner-Gren foundation for Anthropological for the social anthropologist's
Research. impasse when he tries to add change to his
661
662 American Anthropologist [69, 1967
traditional description an
of social
event systems
of change? issummarize
We may even
found in the basic characteristics of the de-
a frequency, a rate of breaches of a custom; we
will still know nothing about the probability
scriptive concepts we habitually use. We wish
or imminence of a change in the custom, or
to characterize groups, societies, or cultures,
about the direction of change that frequent
and to do this we have to aggregate individual
observations. We generally think of the pro-breaches signal.
cedure as one where we aggregate individual I feel that we need rather to use concepts
that enable us to depict the pattern itself as a
cases of behavior to patterns of behavior, speci-
fying the common features of the individual statistical thing, as a set of frequencies of
cases. Such patterns we think of as customs:alternatives. If we, for example, look at social
stereotyped forms of behavior that are behavior
re- as an allocation of time and resources,
quired and correct. Some of us may choose wetocan depict the pattern whereby people
emphasize the moral character of customs allocate their time and resources. Changes in
(and thus the possibility of eliciting them the proportions of these allocations are ob-
directly from informants) rather than their servable, in the sense that they are measur-
stereotyped character, but in either case weable.
feelNew allocations are observable as con-
that the two are connected. We then construct
crete events that may have systematic effects
a system composed of such formal features,
and thus generate important change. And this
and characterize the whole system as one
view does not entail that we limit ourselves to
"with" dowry, or "with" cross-cousin mar-the description of an economic sector of activi-
riage, or "with" ambilocal residence. ties only; it can be applied to the whole field
This kind of morphological concept of cus- of social organization, to describe how people
tom as the minimal element of form has been in fact manage to arrange their lives.
fundamental to our thinking because it servesSharp's classic description of the introduc-
such a useful purpose. It allows us to aggregate tion of the steel axe among the Yir Yoront of
individual cases into a macrosystem and toAustralia (Sharp 1952) stands out as an illumi-
maintain the connection between the two nating case-study of social change precisely
levels. We avoid the difficulties of some of the because it adopts this perspective. It provides
other social sciences of using different kinds ofan understanding of change by explaining the
concepts for the description of the microunitchanging bases from which people make their
and the macroaggregate: a man "gives" a allocations. We see how Yir Yoront women no
dowry and a society "has" dowry. A custom longer need to offer as much submission to their
has morphological characteristics that are husbands because they no longer need to go to
like those of an individual item of behavior, them to obtain an axe; we understand why
and on both levels we can use the same de- people no longer allocate time and resources
scriptive and characterizing terms. And so towe
intertribal festivals because they are no
can observe people practicing the very cul- longer dependent on them to obtain their tools.
ture that we abstract, whereas nobody prac- This way of isolating the underlying deter-
tices socioeconomic class or gross national minants of social forms, so as to see how
income. changes in them generate changing social
But such a concept of custom makes the systems, implies a view of behavior and
pattern as a whole unobservable, except as society that is rather different from what has
exemplified in the stereotyped aspects of each frequently been adopted in anthropology.
individual case-the aggregate pattern can What we see as a social form is, concretely, a
never be observed by measurement. A custom pattern of distribution of behavior by different
is revealed only in a series of more or less persons and on different occasions. I would
representative exemplifications. And change argue that it is not useful to assume that
in a pattern, or change from one pattern to this empirical pattern is a sought-for con-
another, is even less observable: there is no dition, which all members of the community
way to observe and describe an event of equally value and willfully maintain. Rather,
change, except perhaps in the field of legisla-it must be regarded as an epiphenomenon of a
tion. great variety of processes in combination, and
A statistical view of the practice of customs our problem as social anthropologists is to
does not provide a way out. We may observeshow how it is generated. The determinants of
breaches of custom-but is a breach of custom the form must be of a variety of kinds. On the
BARTH] On the Study of Social Change 663
one hand, what persons wish in to achieve,go,
the institution the
all that the informants,
multifarious ends they areorpursuing,
an anthropologist will
with longer field work
channel their behavior. On thein theother
area thanhand,
myself, might be able to say is
that beerdoom
technical and ecologic restrictions parties are
somebecoming fewer or more
kinds of behavior to failure and reward others,
rowdy.
If one wishes
while the presence of other actors to describe an institution as a
imposes
strategic constraints and opportunities thatof time and resources,
pattern of the allocation
one can
modify the allocations people needs make
to specifyand
the set of alternatives. In
will benefit from making. a beer party you can be guest or host, or you
I would therefore argue thatmay choose
it is to allocate your own labor directly
unfruitful
to explain a social form, a pattern,
to your own directly
millet field. Different frequencies
of these
by hypothesizing a purpose for it.allocations
Individualentail different kinds of
community
actors and individual management life: although
units have they may be looked
purposes and make allocationsat as behavioral outputs, their frequencies
accordingly;
haveof
but a social form, in the sense structural implications for the society.
an over-all
Thus,
pattern of statistical behavior, is thewhere there is a predominance of
aggregate
pattern produced by the processallocation
of of own labor
social lifeto own fields, this
entails
through which ecologic and a limited circulation
strategic con- of labor services in
straints channel, defeat, andthe communityvarious
reward as a whole and a low level of
neighborliness
activities on the part of such management and community life. Differ-
units. ences in wealth are constrained by the range of
the labor
This analytic perspective stands capacity
in marked of each cultivator-house-
holder. predilection
contrast to the anthropological
Where
for going from a generalized type on the otherof
construct hand
a there is much beer-
party activity
social form to a list of "prerequisites" and this
for reciprocity in the host-
general type. Though these twoguest exercises
relationship, this
are maintains an egali-
tarian, communal
so close in many formal respects, their peasant
objec- community through
the constant
tives are strikingly different. In one circulation
case, andaredistribution of
labor services
social form, or a whole society, is seenand rewards.
as a
But the actual
morphological creature with certain extent of reciprocity also
require-
needs toin
ments that need to be ascertained, be the
measured.
func- If some consistently act
more
tionalist tradition, the better toas understand
hosts than as guests, they are trans-
how it is put together. In theforming
other somecase,
millet ainto labor. An increased
rate of nonreciprocal
social form is seen as the epiphenomenon ofallocations
a of this kind
number of processes, and theleads to an increased
analysis concen- social differentiation,
trates on showing how the formwhereis some simultaneously obtain both
generated.
Only the latter view develops wealth and leisure;
concepts that is, it leads to change
that
in the direction
directly promote the understanding of increased social stratifica-
of change.
tion.
I have been concerned recently to analyze
the institution of the beer partyOnein maythe
therefore argue that these be-
society
of the Fur, a village-dwelling havioral outputs feed back on
population inthe structure of
Darfur province of Sudan thatthesubsists
community itself.
mainly The ubiquitous beer-
by the hoe cultivation of millet party guest,
(Barthwho is exchanging
1967).labor directly
One may describe the norms for beer,
ordoes not ask himself: How will this
customs
governing this institution and allocation affect our
show howsystemit of social stratifi-
organizes a group of persons cation?
aroundYet his allocations,
a joint made on the basis
task. Beer is supplied by a host, of limitedand considerations,
guests do in fact create
arrive to drink, sing, and work directions
for and the
constraints
host.on possible change.
Some of the guests are there It isby invitation;
only through attention to the frequencies
many arrive unasked and unannounced, of allocations, by describing thetopattern itself
share in the work and the beer and the com- as a certain set of frequencies, that it becomes
possible to observe and describe such quite
pany. In all these respects, one beer party is
like another beer party, and this brief de-simple events of social change.
scription summarizes the gross customary Because of an interest in observing events
features of the institution. As far as changes
of change, a group of us in Bergen decided to
turn our attention to the choices to the cultural
study values or value orien-
of entrepre-
neurs (cf. Barth 1963). The choice
tations to which wasthey rather
subscribe. The entre-
obvious in that entrepreneurs preneurial coup, are whereclearly
one makes one's big
agents of change: they make profits, innovations
is where one discovers that
a path by which
affect the community in which somethingthey of little value
are can be transformed
active.
Entrepreneurs are also much more
into something of common
great value. But looked at
and active in some communities and societies this way, entrepreneurial successes produce
than in others, and the dynamic character of new information on the interrelations of
some societies has sometimes been explained different categories of valued goods. The infor-
by the prevalence of entrepreneurs in them. mation produced by such activity will render
The anthropological study of entrepreneurs false the idea that people have held till then
and entrepreneurship has characteristically about the relative value of goods, and can
sought to show the common characteristics reasonably
of be expected to precipitate re-
entrepreneurs that differentiate them from evaluations and modifications both of cate-
nonentrepreneurs, and thus the prerequisites gorizations and of value orientations. In other
for the emergence of entrepreneurship. What words, it changes the cultural bases that deter-
we did was to ask, not what makes the en-mine people's behavior, and in this way
trepreneur, but what does the entrepreneur entrepreneurial activity becomes a major well-
make: what can one say about his enterprise, spring of cultural and social change (cf. Barth
is it possible to characterize it as an event of 1966, esp. pp. 16-20).
change? However, the main point in the preceding
Now in retrospect, one might see several discussion is the most general one: I feel that
alternative ways of pursuing this question it is important for social anthropologists to
and simpler ways of handling it than the ones realize that we further our understanding of
we adopted in that particular study. But what social change best by using concepts that make
proved stimulating to us then and later was the concrete events of change available to
the way this question directed us to look for observation and systematic description.
ways of characterizing and describing change
itself, rather than the prerequisites for change. There is also a requirement of another order
We attempted to characterize particular cases that needs to be observed in such studies. To
of entrepreneurial activity as new kinds of speak about change, one needs to be able to
allocation. But since our major interest was specify the nature of the continuity between
not in an individual or a category of indi- the situations discussed under the rubric of
viduals, but in a social system, we had to go change. Change implies a difference of a very
on to characterize this social system and show particular kind: one that results from an
how the entrepreneurial activity in question alteration through time and is determined by
was changing it. We therefore had to try to the constraints of what has been, or continues,
show the system of allocations in the entrepre- in a situation. Let me use a very simple illus-
neur's community and to place his new alloca- tration: Imagine a situation where you stand
tions in relation to these others. In this mate- looking into an aquarium, and you observe a
rial and elsewhere (Barth 1967) one finds thatfish. A moment later you find yourself looking
entrepreneurs effect new conversions betweenat a crab in the same place where the fish was.
forms of goods that were previously not If you ask yourself how it got claws instead of
directly convertible. They thereby create new fins, you are implying a certain kind of con-
paths for the circulation of goods, often cross- tinuity: this is the same body, and it has
ing barriers between formerly discrete spheres changed its shape. If, on the other hand, you
of circulation. say to yourself that this is the same aquarium,
This activity cannot be without effect on the you are specifying another kind of continuity,
culture of the members of an entrepreneur's implying a set of constraints that leads you to
community. If we look for the bases on which formulate other hypotheses about the dy-
people make their allocations in primary namics of change in this instance. Different
cultural facts such as people's categorization specifications of the nature of the continuity
of different kinds of goods and their preference that ties two situations together in a sequence
criteria for evaluating different outcomes of ofchange give rise to very different hypotheses
their allocations, then we are relating their about the mechanisms and processes of change.
For every analysis, it is therefore necessary
structure for
of society, is not determined by this
us to make explicit our assertions
alone, soabout the
this does not exhaust the factors of
nature of the continuity. continuity. What people do is also significantly
In physical anthropology, the principle
constrained of
by circumstance: a whole range of
noninheritance of acquired facts characteristics
of life, mainly ecological, enters as com-
represents a step toward such aponents because people's
specification of allocations are
the nature of continuity. And the increasingly
adjusted and adapted in terms of what they
rigorous study of change has experience only been as themade
observed outcomes of their
possible through the explicit behavior. assertion that
The strategic constraints of social
what continues through time may be enter
life also described
and affect behavior: people's
as a gene pool, and that changes in are
activities form re-
canalized by the fact of competi-
flect changes in the frequenciestion of and
genescooperation
in thefor valued goods with
gene pool of the population. other persons and thus by the problems of
In archeology, a hand-axe does not one's
adapting breed a
behavior to that of others,
hand-axe, and the typological vocabulary
themselves predictive and adaptable.
that seemed to imply this kindI of wouldcontinuity
argue that since these various com-
has largely been dropped in favor ponents of aninvolved
are all ex- as determinants of
plicit recognition that the continuity the forms is of found
aggregate social behavior, conse-
in (a) the cultural tradition of the tool-makers.
quently they must all enter into our specifica-
However, the constraints on the tions processes
of the continuityof connecting situations in
change implied by this are very a sequence
poorly of change; and any hypothesis
under-
stood. Perhaps for that reason, about social change is inadequate unless it
archeology
seems so far to have been more successful when takes all these constraints of continuity into
specifying other kinds of continuity, such as account. It may be a convenient shorthand for
(b) the constancy of materials, implying con- structural comparison to say that a matrilineal
straints that help us understand courses of kinship system changes into a bilateral one, or
change in techniques and art styles, or (c) that a lineage organization develops into a seg-
the continuity or slow change of environment, mentary state. But such a formulation is not
enabling archeologists to see successive cul- a convenient shorthand for the series of events
tures as changing adaptations to the environ- of change that have taken place, since it begs
ment. the whole analysis by implying a naive and
In social anthropology, the specification ofmechanical kind of continuity between the
continuity is highly problematical. To formu- two forms, like that between the fish and the
late hypotheses about change, we must be crab in the aquarium.
able to specify the connection, that is, the Let me illustrate what I mean by a simple
processes that maintain a social form, an example, again based on material from the
institution, or an organization. An item of Fur.' Fur household organization is one where
behavior does not breed an item of behavior. each adult individual is an economic unit for
What then is it that creates continuityhimself:
of each man or woman produces essen-
society from one day to the next? tially what he or she needs for food and cash,
Obviously, one can say that society is in the and has a separate purse. Husband and wife
minds of men-as experiences and expecta- have certain customary obligations toward
tions. If forms of behavior can be described as each other: among other services, a wife must
allocations with reference to evaluated ends, cook and brew for her husband, and he must
then what persists in the minds of men can be provide her with clothes for herself and their
understood as items of credit and debt, as children. But each of the two cultivates sep-
prestations outstanding that make the actors arate fields and keeps provisions in separate
grain stores.
pick up where they last left off. In more general
terms, one can see a continuity of agreement This arrangement can be depicted as a sys-
between people about the distribution of tem of allocations (Figure 1). A woman must
assets-that is, about the location of rights in allocate a considerable amount of her time,
statuses distributed in the population. Under- varying with the season, to agricultural pro-
lying these one might expect to find shared cul- duction. By virtue of the marriage contract,
tural schemes of classification and evaluation. she is also constrained to allocate time to
But the aggregate pattern of behavior, cooking
the and to brewing beer for her husband.
other activities
Ssaving
man's agricultural food and cash
time production V \ c consumption
woman - consumption
woman's - *agricultural . food and cash
time production saving
other activities
FIGURE 1
The husband, on his side, owes it to his wife tohold organization as one of the parts of Arab
allocate some of his cash to consumption goods culture, a set of customs that people can take
for her. Such patterns of allocation are thusover.
one way of describing the structure of Fur Fortunately, the ethnographic ma
family and household. provides us with a test case for the acc
Some of these Fur couples change their modetion hypothesis: some Fur cultivato
of life and become nomadic pastoralists like thevillages where they have no contact wit
surrounding Baggara Arabs (cf. Hiland 1967).horticultural populations, have recently
Together with this change in subsistence pat-up fruit-growing in irrigated orchar
terns one finds a change in family and house-specialized form of cash-crop produ
hold form, in that such couples establish a Among such Fur too, one finds joint
joint household. Their allocations change, asholds, but with a slightly different patt
compared to those of normal Fur villagers allocation (Figure 3). Here the conjuga
(Figure 2). The husband specializes in the make up a unit both for production an
activities that have to do with herding and sumption, jointly cultivating the orcha
husbandry, while the woman cultivates somesharing the returns.
millet, churns butter and markets it, and cooks To maintain the force of the acculturation
food. They have a joint grain store and a jointexplanation of the form of the nomad house-
purse and make up a unit for consumption.holds, one would have to look for similar fac-
In the anthropological tradition, one mighttors in the case of the orchard cultivators and
reasonably formulate the hypothesis that hypothesize a change in values and accultura-
what we observe here is a case of acculturation to modern life among them. But it is diffi-
cult to see the sources of influence for such ac-
tion: as part of the change to a Baggara Arab
culturation; more importantly, a restatement
way of life they also adopt the Arab household
form. This manner of describing the courseof of
the nature of the continuity provides oppor-
tunities for other kinds of hypotheses. If we
change implies a very concrete view of house-
other activities
man's pastoral
time productionf consumption
food and cash saving
woman's I agriculturalsan
time production
other activities
FIGBRE 2
other activities
man's
time
consumption
production food and cash
Ssaving
woman's
time
mother activities
FIGURE 3
agree that behavior in households is deter- and dairying, cooperation offers great ad-
mined by several kinds of constraints, that all vantages. Similarly, where a pooling of labor
behavior is "new" in that it constitutes alloca-
in specialized arboriculture and fruit-picking
tions of time and resources made or renewed gives far greater returns than millet cultiva-
in the moment of action, and that householdstion, it is also clearly to the advantage of both
persist because their forms are recreated byspouses to go together over production and
behavior each day, then we need to ask what share the product jointly.
the other determinants of these allocations One may hypothesize a persistence of values
are. To explain a changing pattern of activities,
in all these different situations: (a) a preference
we need not hypothesize changed categoriza- for husband-wife autonomy, and (b) a prefer-
tions and values: we can also look at the ence for the minimization of effort in produc-
changed circumstances that may welltion. make How can spouses further these interests
other allocations optimal when evaluated in different
by situations where environmental
the same standards. constraints change? Where effective produc-
Indeed, the traditional range of behavior tion can be pursued individually, persons will
and allocations in a Fur village indicates thatbe able simultaneously to maximize both
the Fur do not subscribe to any kind of pro- interests. Where pooling of labor in orchards
hibition in joint conjugal households-such gives great returns with limited effort, this
arrangements are just not very convenient. A allocation on the balance gives the greatest
fair autonomy of husband and wife is regarded advantage to both spouses. Where they thus
as a good thing, and joint economic pursuits have a joint share in the product, it is difficult
and meaningless to divide it up when the
are a potential field for conflict. Moreover, the
techniques of millet cultivation are such that mutual obligations of cooking and clothing
persons work individually in any case; and tie the spouses together anyway for certain
where a person desires help during peak aspects of consumption-so joint households
seasons, he or she can mobilize labor in bulk are generated. Finally, where complemen-
through a beer work party. In the case of irri- tarity and cooperation are not only advanta-
gated cash crops, on the other hand, the horti-geous but necessary, as in a nomadic setting,
cultural techniques are such that it may bethe necessary allocations will similarly create a
convenient to cooperate. Persons with neigh- joint household, organized on a slightly
boring plots often do so; occasionally, a hus-different pattern from that of the orchard
band and wife will also decide to cultivate a owners. It is by considering all the factors of
joint field-because they "like" to work continuity
toin the situation of change-in
this case both valuational and technical-
gether and because they can partly take turns
at irrigation, etc., partly cooperate. economic-that we are in a position to formu
The advantages of this jointness in cultiva-
late, and choose:gmong, the full range of rele-
vant hypotheses.
tion are rather limited, only slightly reducing
the labor input required for the same result, In this example, then, we find that change in
and few spouses choose to work jointly. But household form is generated by changes in one
in a situation where one of the spouses can variable: the relative advantage of joint pro
duction over separate production. This is
specialize in herding, the other in cultivation
units of management
hardly a surprising conclusion. But if we that attack
dispose over re-
the problem in terms ofsources and make allocations.
a typology of house-Individual
hold forms, we might be actors
led to will naturally house-
classify make frequent mis-
hold type I (individual households
judgments of whatfor each of their alloca
the pay-offs
person) and household type II be;
tions will (joint
but as conjugal
the outcomes become ap
households) as very different forms
parent through and
experience, tocan be realisti
they
worry about how type I cally
changes
evaluated.into
If the type
pay-offsII,
are great, one
which is like worrying can
about
expect how the fish
the behavior to be emulated by
changes into the crab. Yet the
others; situation
if, on the other hand,is the results ar
clearly not one where not
one household
desirable body
for the actor, he will not b
changes into another household
emulated, and hebody: it is attempt to
will also himself
one where husband-wife revert sets, to older allocations.
under different
circumstances, choose to But arrange
the process oftheir life is not
institutionalization
differently. By being forced simply one to specify
of duplication; the
the allocations of
nature of the continuity one we
unit canarealso forced to
have direct implications for
specify the processes that other generate
units. They may finda house-
their opportunity
hold form. We see the same two
situation people
changed, not onlymaking
through the possi-
allocations and judging results bility of inemulation,
two but also through a new
different
situations, or we see a population of spouses
need for countermeasures or through new
performing allocations inopportunities a pattern that The
for activity. gener-
aggregate pat-
ates predominantly individual terns that can households
emerge in the populationin will
one opportunity situation, joint
thus be households
shaped by in and
the fact of competition
another. We are led to seek the explanations
the constraints of strategy. To depict these
for change in the determinants constraints ofonform,
actors andand the waythe they will
mechanisms of change in the the
determine processes
aggregate pattern that
of choices in
generate form. a population, we need models in the tradition
of game theory.
In our efforts to understand social
I do not wish change,
to minimize the complexity of
this general viewpoint shifts the dynamics ourof suchattention
change and adjustment.
from innovation to institutionalization as the My main point is that most of the salient con-
critical phase of change. People make alloca- straints on the course of change will be found
tions in terms of the pay-offs that they hope to be social and interactional, and not simply
to obtain, and their most adequate bases for cognitive. They will derive from the existing
predicting these pay-offs are found in their social and ecological system within which
previous experience or in that of others in their
change is taking place. And finally, they can
community. The kinds of new ideas that occur most usefully be analyzed with reference to
can no more determine the direction of social the opportunity situation of social persons or
change than mutation rates can determine the other units of management capable of deci-
direction of physical change. Whatever ideassion-making and action: the mechanisms of
people may have, only those that constitute change must be found in the world of efficient
a practicable allocation in a concrete situation
causes. It should follow from this that though
will be effected. And if you have a system of it may be a convenient and illuminating short-
allocations going-as you always must wherehand of culture history to differentiate between
you can speak of change-it will be the rates "emergent" and "recurrent" change, the
and kinds of pay-offs of alternative allocations
mechanisms involved seem to be essentially
within that system that determine whether they the same: we must use the same tools to under-
will be adopted, that is, institutionalized. The
stand the continuities that constitute society
main constraints on change will thus be foundin each case.
in the system, not in the range of ideas for in-
novation, and these constraints are effective In summary, I should like to submit that
in the phase of institutionalization. this general line of analysis-which is being
The comparative rates of pay-off of alterna-pursued in various ways by numerous col-
tive allocations, which determine the course ofleagues in the United States and elsewhere-
institutionalization, must be seen from themakes it possible for us to improve our analyt-
point of view of actors or of other concrete ic and predictive understanding of social
REFERENCES CITED
change. I have had to harness it in this presen-
tation to specific, incomplete,
BARTH, F. and doubtless
in many ways inadequate exemplifications.
1963 The role of the entrepreneur in social change in
But its essentials are a concentration on the Northern Norway. Bergen-Oslo, Norwegian Universities
Press.
observation of events of change and a specifi-
1966 Models of social organization. Royal Anthropological
cation of the nature of continuity: the con- Institute Occasional Paper No. 23, London.
straints of the whole system that is changing. 1967 Economic spheres in Darfur. In Themes in economic
Conversely, I would suggest that approaches anthropology. R. Firth, ed. London, Tavistock Publications.
that rely on typologies of overt social forms,HXLAND, GUNNAR
1967 Ervervsform og etnisk tilh6righet. En studie av
or seek to characterize and compare different
nomadiseringsprosesser blant fastboende hakkebrukere i
courses of change, will not provide as ready det vestlige Darfur. University of Bergen. Unpublished
insights into the nature of social change. thesis.
SHARP, LAURISTON
NOTES
1952 Steel axes for stone-age Australians. In Human prob-
1 This material derives from Gunnar Hiland (1967) as well
lems in technological change. E. H. Spicer, ed. New York,
as my own field material. Russell Sage Foundation.

Barth, On The Study of Social Change (1967)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Barth, On The Study of Social Change (1967)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

On the Study of Social Change

Author(s): Fredrik Barth

Traditional anthropological description in terms of pattern and custom, convenient a

of society in such terms that we see how it

You might also like