Cross-cultural diffusion: what it is, types and characteristics

These are the types of cross-cultural diffusion, ways in which elements of culture are shared.

Cultures are not hermetic, so they often acquire elements from the outside or share their own with the rest. Cross-cultural diffusion is an example of this.

We will delve into the anthropological phenomena that explain these contacts between cultures in which one culture acquires customs or concepts from the others. We will also see the types that can occur and the theories that attempt to offer models for this phenomenon.

What is cross-cultural diffusion?

The transcultural diffusion is a concept referred to anthropology, concretely to its cultural aspect, that makes reference to the propagation of the elements of a culture, whether internal, by contact between individuals of the same culture, or external if, on the other hand, the phenomenon takes place between two people from different cultures.

Through this mechanism, a culture can contribute to others from simple customs to differentiating elements such as a language, a religion or even complex technological developments that can be the catalyst for a change of era in that civilization, so we are talking about an extraordinarily powerful process for cultural enrichment.

The first to speak of transcultural diffusion, and therefore the author who coined the term, was Leo Frobenius, a German ethnologist. It was in his work The Culture of West Africa, where the concept first appeared and from then on it became established in the glossary of anthropology as one of the fundamental terms to be able to talk about these changes in cultures.

It is important not to confuse It is important not to confuse cross-cultural diffusion with the diffusion of innovations, another very important phenomenon used in anthropology and sociology, but with a different meaning. but with a different meaning. In the case of the latter term, it refers to how ideas about technological improvements pass from one culture to another. One of the most classic examples is the mastery of metallurgy that allowed societies to move into the Iron Age.

Types of cross-cultural diffusion

Cross-cultural diffusion can take place through different methods. Let us review all of them in order to know all the possible types that can occur.

Diffusion by expansion

The first way for an element to be transmitted between cultures (or within the same culture) is through expansion. What does this consist of? In that the characteristic in particular has been generated in a certain place, which would be the nucleus, and from there it has begun to be transmitted geographically, first to neighboring areas and later to other more distant ones.first to neighboring areas and later to other more distant ones.

2. Diffusion by migration

The second type to generate cross-cultural diffusion is that of migration. As in the previous case, we would be talking about a cultural unit that has arisen in one place and from there has been transmitted to another location. The difference is that in this case, the cultural element is transferred, not copied, so it ceases to be in its original location and migrates permanently to the new one. to migrate definitively to the new one.

3. Diffusion by hierarchy

Another form of cross-cultural diffusion is that which occurs in a hierarchical manner. This is a form of geographic expansion with a peculiarity, and that is that the place where the new cultural element starts from has a higher hierarchy than those areas to which it is going to be exported, which in some way would be subordinated and would assimilate the concept by obligation.The new cultural element has a higher hierarchy than those areas to which it is to be exported, which in some way would be subordinated and would assimilate the concept by obligation.

4. Diffusion by imitation

In other cases, cross-cultural diffusion is effected through a process of imitation, so that an individual observes another individual making use of the cultural element in question and thus undergoes the contagion of this element, taking it as his or her own.and thus becomes one's own and thus expands its use.

5. Diffusion by association

Finally we would find the transcultural diffusion by association. How does this happen? This is a special case in which there is a main cultural element, which is the one that is being transmitted, by any of the methods we have seen above, but also There are other elements that are associated to the first one in some way and, by transmitting it, accompany it in an indirect way. in the process in an indirect way.

Different origins of cross-cultural diffusion

We have made a tour of the types of transcultural diffusion in terms of the process that the cultural element takes to pass to another place. We are now going to learn about the mechanisms by which a culture can be diffused in such a way that its components are assimilated by another culture..

Form of direct diffusion

The first form of cross-cultural diffusion is that which occurs directly between one culture and another due to their proximity. We can visualize it on a large scale, between two contiguous human populations that relate to each other, either peacefully (trade routes, tourism, etc.) or aggressively, through wars and other conflicts.

But It can also occur on a small scale, between two people from different cultures. who, due to their friendship or partnership, exchange elements of their respective cultures that end up being taken up and integrated by the other party as something of their own.

2. Indirect form of diffusion

When we speak of the indirect form of diffusion we are referring to members of two different cultures that, in this case, do not have direct contact, have no direct contact, so that the exchange of elements is carried out through a common denominator, which would be a third culture, that would be a third culture.This would be a third culture, which would be acting as an intermediary between the two.

Therefore, in this mechanism of transcultural diffusion, culture A would pass on some of its elements to culture B, which in the future would also be diffused from culture B to culture C. In this way, culture A would have exported some of its characteristics to culture C without any direct contact between them.

3. Imposed form of diffusion

But not all cultural exchanges occur naturally. There are many examples of dominant dominant cultures that have forced less powerful ones to assume characteristics that did not correspond to them in order to standardize with them. to standardize with it. This is the case of peoples and nations that throughout history have invaded other territories and forced the inhabitants to abandon practices that conflicted with their customs.

This is the mechanism of imposed or forced diffusion. The differentiating element would be that of imposition as opposed to the voluntariness of the other methods.

Theories on cross-cultural diffusion

There are different theoretical models that attempt to explain the phenomenon of cross-cultural diffusion. Let us take a closer look at each model.

1. Migrations

One of them refers to the migratory processes of human populations.. The migratory model affirms that it is through these movements that cultures manage to expand and penetrate other cultures, sometimes overlapping and sometimes mixing.

2. Cultural circles

On the other hand, the model of diffusionism in cultural circles proposes the idea that originally there was a very small group of cultures and it was through relationships among them, including cross-culturalincluding cross-cultural diffusion and splits to reach the large number we have today.

3. Culture Bullet

Another of these theories is that of the culture bullet or Kultur-kugel, with its original German name. This idea, proposed by the archaeologist James Patrick Mallory, affirms that cross-cultural diffusion is more frequent for language elements than for other cultural elements. such as those of a material nature or those affecting the social structure of the group in question.

4. Evolutionary diffusionism

A theory called evolutionary diffusionism has also been proposed. The approach of this model speaks of a form of transcultural diffusion which in reality does not imply that one culture propagates an element over another, but rather that this element arises at the same time in separate cultures because both have reached an evolutionary stage that provides the necessary conditions for that new element to emerge.

5. Hyperdiffusionism

Finally we would find hyperdiffusionism, which takes the theory of cultural circles to its extreme, indicating that in reality, in the beginning, there were not even a few primordial cultures, but only one.. It was through migratory processes that human groups began to populate other corners of the world, taking their culture to those places and experiencing changes thereafter.

Authors such as Antonio de León Pinelo believed in this theory to the point of affirming that humanity had originated in what today would be South America and more specifically in the area of Bolivia, and then began to expand to the rest of the globe. It would be one of the first hyperdifusionist approaches that would try to explain the transcultural diffusion.

Bibliographical references:

• Chevedden, P.E. (2000). The invention of the counterweight trebuchet: A study in cultural diffusion. Dumbarton Oaks Papers. JSTOR.
• Levitt, P. (1998). Social Remittances: Migration Driven Local-Level Forms of Cultural Diffusion. International migration review.
• Whiten, A., Caldwell, C.A., Mesoudi, A. (2016). Cultural diffusion in humans and other animals. Current opinion in Psychology. Elsevier.