Clark Wissler-The Culture Area Concept (1928)

7/27/2019 Clark Wissler-The Culture Area Concept (1928)

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THE CULTURE AREA CONCEPT AS A RESEARCH LEADCLARK WISSLERYale University

ABSTRACTThe nterestf social cientistsnthe ulturerea dea s that hey ee n t thesuggestionf lead to theobjective tudy fcontemporaryulture.However,ftheculturerea as conceivedy anthropologistssa trueead, hen he ulture henom-ena nvolvedhould euniversalndnotpeculiaroprimitiveultureslone. Whileit s true hat, o far, heexistencefsuch reashas notbeendemonstratedutsideofaboriginal orthAmerica,here reindicationshatregional ifferencesncon-temporaryulture reofthe ame ype. n responseo thequery s tohowone stogo about he tudy fcontemporaryulturenananthropologicalay, t spro-posedthat start emadewith uchtraits s farm rchitecture,ome ndustries,etc. It is, however,nadvisableo carry ver hehistoricalnterestsf theanthro-pologist,or hehistoricalspect f contemporaryultures taken areofbythe n-tiquarian; atherhould he tudy fcontemporaryultureoncerntselfwith hefunctionalspect ftheproblem.The nowmuchdiscussed ulture rea seems o holdouta re-

search ure, r to suggest kind f"folkhunch" hat heressome-thingnthe dea thatpoints heway toa better ealizationf whatis going n inspecific ommunities. ll investigators,hethernthesocialornatural ciences, re expectantfnew eadsbecausethe ccumulatingxperienceftheir ind sthat uccesses ndad-vancementsome from uchnewresearchnsights,r "hunches,"when reliminaryxploratoryesearchroves hem ealities.Also,thehistoryfscience, speciallyocial cience,eems o ustifyhebelief hat hemostfruitfuleads are those nvolvingn objectiveapproach,with ewmaterials,rat leastwithmaterialsnnew s-sociations.By materials, emean, fcourse, uch angible ata asthe nvestigator ustworkwith. The culture rea idea suggestsitselfn thisconnectionecauseanthropologistsan justly laimenough mpirical orkwith egional ataforAmericanndian ul-tures ofulfilherequirementust stated, rtosaythatwhen b-jectively reatedn a certainway,thedata revealculture reas,which reas seemto have a structureftheir wn, husmakingtentative laimto beingunitsocialorganisms.Although,s hasbeenrepeatedlytatedbyculturereaenthusiastshemselves,he894


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CULTURE AREA CONCEPT AS RESEARCH LEAD 895presence f thephenomenonas not been demonstratedor therparts ftheprimitiveorld, hey re ready oassume hat hephe-nomenons universal o primitive an. The lureto the ocialsci-ences omes, owever, ut ofthebackgroundelief f anthropolo-gy,orthe faith f theprofession,hat here reno importantis-tinctions etween rimitive an and the remainderf thehumanfamily, nd that, n consequence,he culture rea lead, if a truelead, has universal alidity. n this ase, f theassumption olds,thephenomenonhould e presentncontemporaryulture ndbeequallypotentnresearch herein.Whatevermay be thetruth fthismatter, eepergrows hefeeling hat "there s somethingnit,"as an approach oan understandingfcontemporaryulture.In his volume n Man andCulture, hewriter id grosslyp-plytheculturerea concept ocontemporaryulture s developedinWestern urope nd hercolonies, uttheprocedure as oneofanalogy nd sweepingnterpretation,nd not a searchingnquiryinto ny pecifichaseofthat ulture. he question owfrequent-ly raised yresearchmen nthe ocial ciencess as to whetherhislead can befollowednregionaltudies f localnature,s all fieldstudiesncontemporaryulturemustbe. Naturally,hebestwayto answer hisquestionwouldbe to attack given ocalityntheobjectivewayfollowednprimitivetudies ndtopresenthere-sults, eaving hem o speakfor hemselves. uchpioneer xperi-mentation ith his eadnaturally uggeststself osocialscienceinvestigatorsealingwith ommunityurveys, ho n a numberfinstances aveappealedto thewriter orhints s tohowthecon-temporaryulture f such a community ight e approachednconformityith heexperiencefanthropologistsithprimitivecultures, nd,ofcourse,whethernything ere ikely o comeofit, f uch n attempt eremade. As indicatedbove, heonly de-quateanswerwould omethrough xperience,ut evenso,some-thingan be saidwith onfidence. t east, hould ne ask ifthereis reasonable xpectationf a clearernsight hen hecase is in,the nswerwouldbe that f the nvestigatorangetholdof an ob-jective pproach, here s every eason oanticipate stimulatingoutcome,nd it is in justificationf thishope, hatthefollowingsuggestionsremade.


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896 THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGYIn dealingwith ontemporaryulturen thisway,one mustfirstgnore hose raits hat re widelytandardizedpon nation-al level, xceptn so far s theymaybe givenwith easonablec-curacy place in a rating cale, n which ase itmaywellbe thatregional ifferencesill ppear ntheformxpectedn culturereaphenomena. ut evenso onecan feel urer ftheresult,fquali-tativedifferencesan be found.The first ask s, then, oexplorecontemporaryommunityife forqualitative ulture ifferences.Again,drawing ponfield xperiences ithprimitiveeoples, heguesswouldbe thatwhatmight eregardeds trivial raitswouldhave moreweightn differentiatingocalities nd families hanwouldwidely lung,more rlessstandardized,raits.But in anycase,whateverraits re chosen, he searchmustbe detailed ndexacting.Further,here s reason obelieve hat hetask will bemoredifficulthan nthecase of primitiveultures,inceamongprimitives,hegroups small ndsharply ifferentiatedoliticallyandterritorially,hile ncontrast, localityntheUnited tates,for xample,s an integral artof the stateand ofthenation,series fwheelswithin heels, complexnwhich he nvestigatormust etup arbitraryoundaries nd attempto selectthevari-antsofculture raits hatoperatewithin heseboundaries,xclu-sively. t isinthis ense hat he ulture raits electedmay ppearas trivial,rof noimportancencontrast otraits hat onformonational tandards.Turning ow from hesegeneral onsiderationso the actualtask, t spertinento ask,"What raitswould nesuggest s a be-

ginning?"For one,studentsf rural nd town rchitectureavesensed he mportancefcloseregionaltudies, or xample, osephK. Folsom's tudies f farm uildings.Rural NewEngland, artsofPennsylvania,nd sections fseveral outherntatesofferp-portunitiesor rial tudieswith hese raits, utoneespeciallyn-terestingegionsOhioand ndiana, n areaof settlement,hehis-tory f whichs stillobtainable,ommunitiesaving een startedthereby groups f settlers rom ennsylvaniand other asternstates. n this articularrea,barn rchitectureends tself osucha studynda section etween ayton,Ohio, nd Indianapolis,n-diana,maybe taken s a sample,forherewe find t least threetypes f barns, neof which s commonn eastern ennsylvania,


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CULTURE AREA CONCEPT AS RESEARCH LEAD 897probably heplace oforigin. omepreliminarybservationsfthisdistributionavebeenmadebythewriter hich uggest groupingsimilaroprimitiveulture raits.There re also a number f sso-ciated raits howingpproximatelyoincident istributions,romwhich tfollows hat kind fculture rait rea exists.Asidefromarchitecturend closely ssociated raits,we have gathered omeinformations to the distributionf certain pecificmethods ffarming, hich gain points heway to anotherpproach.Thus,it is reported hat n some rural reas of the east wheat s rarelysown nstanding orn s is thecase inOhio and Indiana; corn shoedto keeptheweeds utof therow nd only single imple ul-tivator sed in the same eastern ocalities,while n the westernsections, double ultivator oesthewholeworkwithout upple-mentary oeing.There are alsodifferencesn themethods f har-nessing orses, tc. Here again s an approach o the distributionof localized ontemporaryulture raitswhich re comparableoobservations ade amongprimitive eoples nd no moredifficulttoobtain. t is probable, lso,thathousehold rtsoffern especial-ly goodfield or uch tudies, s methods f making oap, smokingand curingmeat, tc. The objectionmaybe raisedthat ll thesehomely rts re so antiquated nd argely liminated rom resent-dayhouseholdconomyhatnothingan be accomplishedntheirstudy, ut thiswould mply misunderstandingfthe situation.Everyfield-workernsocialanthropologyeets n analogous it-uation, ne nwhich heoldprimitiveulturesbreaking own n-derpressure romntrusive oreignraits,nwhich ase he mustwork artly y observationndpartly yhistoricalmethods.Noculture, owever rimitive,eems o be actually tatic; f t were,our problemswouldbe clear cutand the approachdirect.So thepresence f disintegrationnd changewouldnot n the east dis-concert neaccustomed o researchnsocialanthropologyndtheresults hould, n theend,be comparable.However,ndealingwith uch ituationsncontemporaryul-ture, hedifficultyaybe enhanced ecausethe nvestigator ustintegrateocal datawith hatof thecountry t large.Andagain,thekind f tudieswehavesuggestedmay ppear s tooantiquari-an tohaveanybearing pon ontemporaryife nthatwe areseek-ingourapproachnobsolete roceduresnd thusputting heem-


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898 THE AMERICANJOURNALOF SOCIOLOGYphasisuponwhatwas rather hanwhat s. Accordingothisview,thedifferencesn farming ethods, ome ndustries,rchitecture,etc., re localizedonly nthe sensethat hey re undesirableur-vivalsofwhatwas once the highesttandard or henation, ndthatthestudyof themwould be merely matter fcontrastingthenew with heold, or playingwith xisting nowledge. n theotherhand, as just stated,;heprimitiveulture rea presentssimilarituation,houghbscured ythe nvestigator'sack offa-miliarity ith hewhole ulture ackground; ut nany case, theprimitiveulture raits tudiedvaryfrom urvivals f the old tothenew, ndnot nfrequentlyan a casebe madefor hehistoricalsequence fthetraits nquestion,ustas incontemporarytudiesonemightneedto take into accountsuch general equences ssickles, radles, eapers, inders.Anyway, heprimitiveulturearea, as anthropologistsonceive t, s not fixed, ut a regionnwhich ulture hanges re underway, group f tribal ommuni-tiesdifferingore r ess nculture, utcontinuallydopting ewtraits, rvariants f old ones,each at varying ime ntervals ndnotsimultaneously.hus, t is equallypossible o regard he ag-ging ribes spresentingransienturvivalsf n earlier ulture,uton theother and, t is thisrelative istributionhat s significantinthe iving ulturereaand nwhich ies a leadto an understand-ingoftheprocesses nvolved. rom hecasualobservationf con-temporaryulture, here s reasonto believe hat he survival foldtraitsn ocalities, hen arefullyhecked gainst hedistribu-tionofnewtraits,will givethegeographical attern ommon oprimitiveulture reas. Hence neitherhe pparent riviality,ortheassumed ntiquarian spectofregional tudies n contempo-rary ulture re valid objections o theproposed tudy. n otherwords,he ettings fundamentallyhe amewhetherne takesuptheproblemmong rimitiveultures rincontemporaryife.Revertinggain to thequestion s to whether uch a try tcontemporaryulturesworth hile, onsiderationhould egivento theoft-repeatedssertion hattheonly satisfactorybjectiveapproachesre economic nd deal with ata amenable ostatisticaltreatment. he writer elieves n theeconomic asis to cultures,as far s itgoes,but tseems hatwhen neattemptso dig ntolocal economicit ationby statisticalmethodshe sooner r later


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CULTURE AREA CONCEPT AS RESEARCH LEAD 899comes ofeel hathis distributionones,bands, rpatches, s thecase may be, are too detached n respect o social lifeto throwmuch ight n thefunctionalspectof thematter. he dispositionthen s to lookfor differentpproach o the problem, suallythrough ocialanthropology. ormerly,he practicewas to turntopsychology,utnow hat he oncept f"a culture" as beenfor-mulatednsocial nthropology,he endencys to askhow his ar-ticular robleman be approached y anthropologicalethods.The discussiono farhas offeredustificationor he assump-tion hat uch n approach anbemade,but t does notfollowu-tomaticallyhat the objectiveresultswill be moresatisfying,though heymay wellbe. The difficulty,ot nfrequently,s thatone faces n oldenigmandisguise, orwhen hedistributionsndsegregationsave been made, here emains he nterpretationfthe ame nterms f human ehaviorndexperience,nd such ninterpretationay ust as well failone again, fter heckingutthe related ulture raits nvolvedn the situation.Nevertheless,something aybe gained ftheobjective indingsepresentis-tinct ulture raits nd the distributionsor hese re sufficientlycoincidento ndicate ulture reaphenomena. etthere s anoth-er important eneral onsideration.n socialanthropology,s incertain ther fthe socialsciences, here s a systemicdeal anda functionalne. These ideals are notnecessarilyontradictory,but reusually onsideredo. At east, t s rare o findn investi-gatorwhodoesnotholdoneofthemncontempt. erhaps betterterm or ystemicnanthropologyouldbe descriptive,nd manysocialanthropologistso so far s todeny hat here s anyotherproblem han orecord hedoings f primitiveroupsnan objec-tivemanner nd thatonceyouhavemadethe-record,our ask sdone. No one doubts he mportanceftherecord, ecause he c-tivitiesfa primitiveroup repassing henomena,apidly isap-pearingncompetitionith uropean ulture.On theother and,ifcultures basedupon ife tself, ndifhumanitys even nsightoftheultimate ead eveloffunctionnsisted ponbyanthropolo-gists, r f theprimitives equal toour ownbloodbrother,s theymaintain,hen heprocesses nvolvedncontemporaryife houldhave muchncommon ith hose peratingnprimitiveulture e-sponses. n otherwords,where unctionalroblemsnculturere


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goo THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGYtakenup, theresponses o situations ecome mportantnd it s incontemporaryultures,venmore han lsewhere,hatwhen eek-ing n understandingfwhat hedata mean, efinite nowledgefthe situation nd the response ail us. As we have said, the sys-temic r descriptiveide ofprimitiveulture eceives he ttentionof the nthropologistnd fhe ndulgesnfunctionaltudies t all,they re ofthe rm-chairariety. he ustificationnhiscase maylie nthathe s recordingnfamiliarnd vanishing ata, omethingworthwhile nitself.On theotherhand,one can scarcely ustifycontemporaryulture tudies fcarried utin thesame waybe-cause the historical nd antiquarian eeds ofthe time re takencareof notherways, owe doubt ftheuse ofthe ulturereaap-proach n contemporaryroblemswill be worthwhileunless heultimatebjectives functionalather handescriptive.t willnotdo, therefore, erely o carry ver the methods fanthropologyand applythem ocontemporaryulture, rustinghat utomati-callysomenew nsight illbe attained;rathermust he ocialsci-ence investigatorccept whatever nsighthestudyofprimitiveculture as tooffernd then trike ut on linesofhisown, fwearetounderstand hat culture rea s.The point t issue,then, s as to the universal alidity f theculture reaconceptnsocialanthropology,r ftheprocessesn-volved n a primitiveulture rea are also operativen contem-porary ulture, ndifso, thenwe have at handthephenomena,nthefirst-handtudy fwhich he ocial tudent an useto the imitthedata and experiencesf socialanthropologys wellas of theother ocialsciences.The taskin contemporaryultures, then,exploratoryndexperimentalnthat possible ead is to be triedout as an approach o an understandingfregional ulture he-nomena.The functional roblemn social science s possibly smuch unit roblems it s inpsychologynd no more primitiveproblem han t is a contemporaryne. On thecontrary,heresreason o believe hattheapproach o functionalroblems s farmoredirect n contemporaryife than n primitiveulture.Theimperativehing, owever,s real workwith oncrete ata ratherthan rm-chairiscussionsnd theonly ustificationor hisbriefis that hetask s something ore han one-manob, calling orat least ome ommunityf effortnd nterest.

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Clark Wissler-The Culture Area Concept (1928)