Cultural Diffusion : Definition, Elements and Characteristics

what is culture and culture diffusion

Culture or Cultural diffusion is simultaneous and is such a process which cannot be stopped, as it is not an act which people do consciously; it is a process of showing the way to development, and human is created with an intention to get developed.

Culture is defined as the “the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society”.  these cultures are developed within a community, which has ruled in itself, also people are bonded together in a bond of friendship and kinship; such community is termed, in today’s world, as the society.

Prior, the culture could be one of the reasons among the reasons which had caused a society to gets its form, but as time passes humans or individual or homo-sapiens (a scientific name of human) feel and understand their needs and hence, they modify, themselves and their culture according to the new innovation. One of the great scientists had remarked that “ideas are like a rabbit if you once learned how to catch one, you may soon have many”. Innovations and inventions happen correspondingly, as the man understands what they want and how could they achieve their requirements, from the available resources.

People from different parts of the world may have different kinds of need and hence may develop different ideas to solve their problems accordingly. For example, a person living in Frigid Zone of the earth may have such instruments to grow crops, which may differ in many ways from those, which are required by the people residing in the temperate zone of earth, therefore different parts and different societies develop differently.

These different ideas when interacting with each other causes to develop a society in different ways, and this interaction is known as cultural fusion.

From the above explanation, we can conclude 4 main elements of cultural diffusion they are

• Innovation
• Channel of communication
• Time
• Social system

Innovations define any object, idea or practice that is perceived as new by members of the social system.

Channel of communication means by which information is transmitted to or within the social system

Time of cultural diffusion means the rate at which innovation is diffused or the relative speed with which it is adopted by members of the social system

A social system is a factor which involves individual’s organizations, or agencies that share a common “culture” and are potential adopters of the innovation

Characteristic of cultural diffusion

• Selective Process
• Rapid Material Diffusion.
• Two Way Process.
• Strong Culture Less Diffused.
• Continuous and Increasing Proces

The selective process involves the selection do traits of one culture which appears appropriate and should be adopted by other on selection.

Material is the objects, such objects which get changed with changed culture. Culture is roots of a big great society, its material aspects are easy to change but nonmaterial aspects are inherent in the thoughts of a social animal, thus difficult to change

Mutual interaction changes both the cultures interacting, together.

A large society with the huge population and has roots of a particular culture deep in their thoughts, thus to change such social-culture is difficult.