The concept of acculturation is at the centre of the social changes which are taking place, not without some disorganization, in the developing countries. The increasing interest which they continue to arouse therefore necessitates, among other things, the utilization of exact and operational concepts in the study of a social reality undergoing profound changes and suddenly confronted with civilizations totally different from their own.
1 Cf. below, the definition by Redfield, Linton and Herskovits.
2 R. Redfield, M. J. Herskovits and R. Linton, "Memorandum on the Study of Acculturation," American Anthropologist, 1936, vol. 38, p. 149. Cf. also H. Mendras, Eléments de Sociologie, Paris, Armand Colin, 1967.
3 M. J. Herskovits, Cultural Anthropology, New York, Knopf, 1955.
4 B. Malinowski, The Dynamics of Culture Change. An Inquiry into Race Relations in Africa, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1945, p. 57.
5 M. De Coster, "L'influence de la culture sur la réalité industrielle," Reflets et Perspectives de la vie économique, Tome IX, No. 1, 1970, p. 59-76.
6 We have no intention of making value judgements when we use the words "traditional" and "modern," but of choosing two types of totally different societies, one of which is characterized by a certain conservatism, a marked cult of the past, and the other by a predisposition to change.
7 E. Durckheim, Le Suicide, Paris, F. Alcan, 1930, chap. V: Le suicide anomique.
8 W. M. Hurh, "Imitation: Its Limits in the Process of Intersocietal Culture Decisions," International Social Science Journal, Vol. XX, No. 3, 1968, p. 456; J. M. Pfiffner and F. P. Sherwood, Administrative Organization, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall Inc., 1960, chapt. 14: The Culture.
9 R. Linton, The Cultural Background of Personality, New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts Inc., 1945, p. 38.
10 The term originated with B. R. Salz (The Human Element in Industrial ization. A Hypothetical Case Study of Ecuadorean Indians, Chicago, 1955).
11 A. Touraine, "Industrialisation et conscience ouvrière a Saô-Paulo," Sociologie du Travail, No. 4, 1961, pp. 77-95 and esp. p. 84.