An Emerging World Culture : Regularities in Culture Change

(I) East and West : an Emerging World Culture A new world culture is emerging as the necessary result of modern technological development. This new culture involves conflict, but it is conflict between past and present rather than between East and West. According to the author there was no such bifurcation. The idea "East and West" is an over-simplified generalization. There are so many societies within and between them. The modern industrial progress is quickly eliminating local differences and creating a new universal culture. The author enumerates interdependency of peoples and nations, linking of widely separated societies and emerging of a complex of closely interrelated technical and social features as main characteristics of this new world culture. This never means, however, reducing all people to a monotonus sameness. Instead, we are witnessing many a new subculture emerging as the result of industrialization. (II) Cross-Cultural Regularities of Contemporary Change In a succinct and clear form the author summarizes a methodology of anthropological field research, which is based on his own rich field experiences. In his project, "Study of Cross-Cultural Regularities of Change, " one of his basic assumptions is that special segments of any population will change in similar ways, if the same acculturative factors are introduced. This assumption derived from the results of his field research in Puerto Rico. Another of his important hypotheses is existence of several cross-cultural types independently emerging in widely separated areas as the result of specific sets of factors. If these assumptions are right, cultural change will be predictable to a certain extent. Hence practical value of anthropology. The author outlines his ambitious field research project, which covers Northwestern Mexico, the Central Andes, West East Africa and Japan. And he intimates the kinds of results he expects from his project. Of special interest and importance are his views on practicabilities of anthropology as an applied social science. He duly calls attention to an oft-neglected point in implementing technical aid programs for under-developed areas, that is, the importance of the subcultural groups that comprise the basic populations whose changing values and attitudes strongly affect national policy