On the Study of Social Change

Author(s): Fredrik Barth

Reviewed work(s):
Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 69, No. 6 (Dec., 1967), pp. 661-669
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/669670 .
Accessed: 25/11/2011 19:24

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Blackwell Publishing and American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to American Anthropologist.

http://www.jstor.org
On the Studyof SocialChange*
FREDRIK BARTH
Universityof Bergen
Traditionalanthropologicaldescriptionin termsof patternand custom,convenientas it is for certain
purposes,resultsessentiallyin accountsthatdo not adequately portraychange.Changeis moreeasily
handledif onelooksat socialbehavioras allocationsof timeandresources.Analysesof ongoingprocess
thatthelatterviewmakespossibleseemmoreproductive ofinsightintothenatureofsocialchangethanhas
beenthecasewithtypologicalandcomparative approaches.

analytical contribution of modern of society in such terms that we see how it

THE
anthropology to the understanding of persists, maintains itself, and changes through
social change has been limited, despite the fact time. This may mean recasting many of our
that our material is becoming increasingly rich terms for the description of social systems,
with most dramatic cases of change. I shall not merely adding a chapter of additional
use the opportunity that a brief and general data. To do the job of analyzing change ade-
discussion of the wide theme of social change quately may mean that we will do some of the
offers to make a preliminary diagnosis of why old jobs less adequately, or at least less simply,
this should be so, and to suggest certain re- than we have been doing. To someone who
quirements and reorientations that I feel are does not share this priority, the efforts may
necessary if we wish to remedy this situation. look unnecessarily complicated and relatively
I shall argue in favor of (a) a greater attention fruitless. But for those who give the under-
to the empirical study of the events of change, standing of change high priority, it is wishful
and a need for concepts that facilitate this; thinking to expect that we can build indis-
(b) the necessity for specification of the nature criminately on all the concepts that our disci-
of the continuity in a sequence of change, and pline has developed for other purposes.
the processual analyses that this entails; and Because of our general unwillingness to
(c) the importance of the study of institu- abandon well-established routines, studies
tionalization as an ongoing process. explicitly addressed to the investigation of
We should not -underestimate the effects change have been prone to contain descrip-
on our discipline that giving first priority to the tions of a social system at two points in
understanding of change may have. There time-or even at one point in time!-and then
has been a comfortable convention in social to rely on extrapolation between these two
anthropology till now of treating "social states, or from the one state, to indicate the
change" as if it were a topic of anthropological course of change. I feel that if we want to
investigation like "religion" or "domestic understand social change, we need concepts
organization," something that may be dis- that allow us to observe and describe the
cussed in addition to, and preferably subse- events of change. Our contribution as social
quent to, other substantive fields in the de- anthropologists must lie in providing such
scription of social systems. But if we couch our primary materials for understanding the
description of these aspects of society as if we processes; it lies in our powers of observation
were dealing with forms that do not entail out there where change is happening today,
and reflect processes, we cannot expect that and not in producing secondary data by deduc-
the terms and concepts we develop in this de- tion and extrapolation. If this means that we
scription will serve us with equal facility in the must recast our very description of social
description of changing forms. systems in order to accommodate these data
To understand social change, what we need about the events of change, that makes our
to do as social anthropologists is to describe all task more difficult but also more interesting.
* Plenary address to the American AnthropologicalAssocia-
tion, 1966. Publicationof this addressis made possibleby a con-
tributionfrom the Wenner-Grenfoundationfor Anthropological The reason for the social anthropologist's
Research. impasse when he tries to add change to his
661
662 American Anthropologist [69, 1967
traditional description of social systems is an event of change? We may even summarize
found in the basic characteristics of the de- a frequency, a rate of breaches of a custom; we
scriptive concepts we habitually use. We wish will still know nothing about the probability
to characterize groups, societies, or cultures, or imminence of a change in the custom, or
and to do this we have to aggregate individual about the direction of change that frequent
observations. We generally think of the pro- breaches signal.
cedure as one where we aggregate individual I feel that we need rather to use concepts
cases of behavior to patternsof behavior, speci- that enable us to depict the pattern itself as a
fying the common features of the individual statistical thing, as a set of frequencies of
cases. Such patterns we think of as customs: alternatives. If we, for example, look at social
stereotyped forms of behavior that are re- behavior as an allocation of time and resources,
quired and correct. Some of us may choose to we can depict the pattern whereby people
emphasize the moral character of customs allocate their time and resources. Changes in
(and thus the possibility of eliciting them the proportions of these allocations are ob-
directly from informants) rather than their servable, in the sense that they are measur-
stereotypedcharacter, but in either case we feel able. New allocations are observable as con-
that the two are connected. We then construct crete events that may have systematic effects
a system composed of such formal features, and thus generate important change. And this
and characterize the whole system as one view does not entail that we limit ourselves to
"with" dowry, or "with" cross-cousin mar- the description of an economic sector of activi-
riage, or "with" ambilocal residence. ties only; it can be applied to the whole field
This kind of morphological concept of cus- of social organization, to describe how people
tom as the minimal element of form has been in fact manage to arrange their lives.
fundamental to our thinking because it serves Sharp's classic description of the introduc-
such a useful purpose. It allows us to aggregate tion of the steel axe among the Yir Yoront of
individual cases into a macrosystem and to Australia (Sharp 1952) stands out as an illumi-
maintain the connection between the two nating case-study of social change precisely
levels. We avoid the difficulties of some of the because it adopts this perspective. It provides
other social sciences of using different kinds of an understanding of change by explaining the
concepts for the description of the microunit changing bases from which people make their
and the macroaggregate: a man "gives" a allocations. We see how Yir Yoront women no
dowry and a society "has" dowry. A custom longer need to offer as much submission to their
has morphological characteristics that are husbands because they no longer need to go to
like those of an individual item of behavior, them to obtain an axe; we understand why
and on both levels we can use the same de- people no longer allocate time and resources
scriptive and characterizing terms. And so we to intertribal festivals because they are no
can observe people practicing the very cul- longer dependent on them to obtain their tools.
ture that we abstract, whereas nobody prac- This way of isolating the underlying deter-
tices socioeconomic class or gross national minants of social forms, so as to see how
income. changes in them generate changing social
But such a concept of custom makes the systems, implies a view of behavior and
pattern as a whole unobservable, except as society that is rather different from what has
exemplified in the stereotyped aspects of each frequently been adopted in anthropology.
individual case-the aggregate pattern can What we see as a social form is, concretely, a
never be observed by measurement. A custom pattern of distribution of behavior by different
is revealed only in a series of more or less persons and on different occasions. I would
representative exemplifications. And change argue that it is not useful to assume that
in a pattern, or change from one pattern to this empirical pattern is a sought-for con-
another, is even less observable: there is no dition, which all members of the community
way to observe and describe an event of equally value and willfully maintain. Rather,
change, except perhaps in the field of legisla- it must be regarded as an epiphenomenon of a
tion. great variety of processes in combination, and
A statistical view of the practice of customs our problem as social anthropologists is to
does not provide a way out. We may observe show how it is generated. The determinants of
breaches of custom-but is a breach of custom the form must be of a variety of kinds. On the
BARTH] On the Study of Social Change 663
one hand, what persons wish to achieve, the in the institution go, all that the informants,
multifarious ends they are pursuing, will or an anthropologist with longer field work
channel their behavior. On the other hand, in the area than myself, might be able to say is
technical and ecologic restrictions doom some that beer parties are becoming fewer or more
kinds of behavior to failure and reward others, rowdy.
while the presence of other actors imposes If one wishes to describe an institution as a
strategic constraints and opportunities that pattern of the allocation of time and resources,
modify the allocations people can make and one needs to specify the set of alternatives. In
will benefit from making. a beer party you can be guest or host, or you
I would therefore argue that it is unfruitful may choose to allocate your own labor directly
to explain a social form, a pattern, directly to your own millet field. Different frequencies
by hypothesizing a purpose for it. Individual of these allocations entail different kinds of
actors and individual management units have community life: although they may be looked
purposes and make allocations accordingly; at as behavioral outputs, their frequencies
but a social form, in the sense of an over-all have structural implications for the society.
pattern of statistical behavior, is the aggregate Thus, where there is a predominance of
pattern produced by the process of social life allocation of own labor to own fields, this
through which ecologic and strategic con- entails a limited circulation of labor services in
straints channel, defeat, and reward various the community as a whole and a low level of
activities on the part of such management neighborliness and community life. Differ-
units. ences in wealth are constrained by the range of
This analytic perspective stands in marked the labor capacity of each cultivator-house-
contrast to the anthropological predilection holder.
for going from a generalized type construct of a Where on the other hand there is much beer-
social form to a list of "prerequisites" for this party activity and reciprocity in the host-
general type. Though these two exercises are guest relationship, this maintains an egali-
so close in many formal respects, their objec- tarian, communal peasant community through
tives are strikingly different. In one case, a the constant circulation and redistribution of
social form, or a whole society, is seen as a labor services and rewards.
morphological creature with certain require- But the actual extent of reciprocity also
ments that need to be ascertained, in the func- needs to be measured. If some consistently act
tionalist tradition, the better to understand more as hosts than as guests, they are trans-
how it is put together. In the other case, a forming some millet into labor. An increased
social form is seen as the epiphenomenon of a rate of nonreciprocal allocations of this kind
number of processes, and the analysis concen- leads to an increased social differentiation,
trates on showing how the form is generated. where some simultaneously obtain both
Only the latter view develops concepts that wealth and leisure; that is, it leads to change
directly promote the understanding of change. in the direction of increased social stratifica-
I have been concerned recently to analyze tion.
the institution of the beer party in the society One may therefore argue that these be-
of the Fur, a village-dwelling population in havioral outputs feed back on the structure of
Darfur province of Sudan that subsists mainly the community itself. The ubiquitous beer-
by the hoe cultivation of millet (Barth 1967). party guest, who is exchanging labor directly
One may describe the norms or customs for beer, does not ask himself: How will this
governing this institution and show how it allocation affect our system of social stratifi-
organizes a group of persons around a joint cation? Yet his allocations, made on the basis
task. Beer is supplied by a host, and guests of limited considerations, do in fact create
arrive to drink, sing, and work for the host. directions and constraints on possible change.
Some of the guests are there by invitation; It is only through attention to the frequencies
many arrive unasked and unannounced, to of allocations, by describing the pattern itself
share in the work and the beer and the com- as a certain set of frequencies, that it becomes
pany. In all these respects, one beer party is possible to observe and describe such quite
like another beer party, and this brief de- simple events of social change.
scription summarizes the gross customary Because of an interest in observing events
features of the institution. As far as changes of change, a group of us in Bergen decided to
664 American Anthropologist [69, 1967
turn our attention to the study of entrepre- choices to the cultural values or value orien-
neurs (cf. Barth 1963). The choice was rather tations to which they subscribe. The entre-
obvious in that entrepreneurs are clearly preneurial coup, where one makes one's big
agents of change: they make innovations that profits, is where one discovers a path by which
affect the community in which they are active. something of little value can be transformed
Entrepreneurs are also much more common into something of great value. But looked at
and active in some communities and societies this way, entrepreneurial successes produce
than in others, and the dynamic character of new information on the interrelations of
some societies has sometimes been explained different categories of valued goods. The infor-
by the prevalence of entrepreneurs in them. mation produced by such activity will render
The anthropological study of entrepreneurs false the idea that people have held till then
and entrepreneurship has characteristically about the relative value of goods, and can
sought to show the common characteristics of reasonably be expected to precipitate re-
entrepreneurs that differentiate them from evaluations and modifications both of cate-
nonentrepreneurs, and thus the prerequisites gorizations and of value orientations. In other
for the emergence of entrepreneurship. What words, it changes the cultural bases that deter-
we did was to ask, not what makes the en- mine people's behavior, and in this way
trepreneur, but what does the entrepreneur entrepreneurial activity becomes a major well-
make: what can one say about his enterprise, spring of cultural and social change (cf. Barth
is it possible to characterize it as an event of 1966, esp. pp. 16-20).
change? However, the main point in the preceding
Now in retrospect, one might see several discussion is the most general one: I feel that
alternative ways of pursuing this question it is important for social anthropologists to
and simpler ways of handling it than the ones realize that we further our understanding of
we adopted in that particular study. But what social change best by using concepts that make
proved stimulating to us then and later was the concrete events of change available to
the way this question directed us to look for observation and systematic description.
ways of characterizing and describing change
itself, rather than the prerequisites for change. There is also a requirement of another order
We attempted to characterize particular cases that needs to be observed in such studies. To
of entrepreneurial activity as new kinds of speak about change, one needs to be able to
allocation. But since our major interest was specify the nature of the continuity between
not in an individual or a category of indi- the situations discussed under the rubric of
viduals, but in a social system, we had to go change. Change implies a difference of a very
on to characterize this social system and show particular kind: one that results from an
how the entrepreneurial activity in question alteration through time and is determined by
was changing it. We therefore had to try to the constraints of what has been, or continues,
show the system of allocations in the entrepre- in a situation. Let me use a very simple illus-
neur's community and to place his new alloca- tration: Imagine a situation where you stand
tions in relation to these others. In this mate- looking into an aquarium, and you observe a
rial and elsewhere (Barth 1967) one finds that fish. A moment later you find yourself looking
entrepreneurs effect new conversions between at a crab in the same place where the fish was.
forms of goods that were previously not If you ask yourself how it got claws instead of
directly convertible. They thereby create new fins, you are implying a certain kind of con-
paths for the circulation of goods, often cross- tinuity: this is the same body, and it has
ing barriers between formerly discrete spheres changed its shape. If, on the other hand, you
of circulation. say to yourself that this is the same aquarium,
This activity cannot be without effect on the you are specifying another kind of continuity,
culture of the members of an entrepreneur's implying a set of constraints that leads you to
community. If we look for the bases on which formulate other hypotheses about the dy-
people make their allocations in primary namics of change in this instance. Different
cultural facts such as people's categorization specifications of the nature of the continuity
of different kinds of goods and their preference that ties two situations together in a sequence
criteria for evaluating different outcomes of of change give rise to very different hypotheses
their allocations, then we are relating their about the mechanisms and processes of change.
BARTH] On the Study of Social Change 665
For every analysis, it is therefore necessary for structure of society, is not determined by this
us to make explicit our assertions about the alone, so this does not exhaust the factors of
nature of the continuity. continuity. What people do is also significantly
In physical anthropology, the principle of constrained by circumstance: a whole range of
noninheritance of acquired characteristics facts of life, mainly ecological, enters as com-
represents a step toward such a specification of ponents because people's allocations are
the nature of continuity. And the increasingly adjusted and adapted in terms of what they
rigorous study of change has only been made experience as the observed outcomes of their
possible through the explicit assertion that behavior. The strategic constraints of social
what continues through time may be described life also enter and affect behavior: people's
as a gene pool, and that changes in form re- activities are canalized by the fact of competi-
flect changes in the frequencies of genes in the tion and cooperation for valued goods with
gene pool of the population. other persons and thus by the problems of
In archeology, a hand-axe does not breed a adapting one's behavior to that of others,
hand-axe, and the typological vocabulary themselves predictive and adaptable.
that seemed to imply this kind of continuity I would argue that since these various com-
has largely been dropped in favor of an ex- ponents are all involved as determinants of
plicit recognition that the continuity is found the forms of aggregate social behavior, conse-
in (a) the cultural tradition of the tool-makers. quently they must all enter into our specifica-
However, the constraints on the processes of tions of the continuity connecting situations in
change implied by this are very poorly under- a sequence of change; and any hypothesis
stood. Perhaps for that reason, archeology about social change is inadequate unless it
seems so far to have been more successful when takes all these constraints of continuity into
specifying other kinds of continuity, such as account. It may be a convenient shorthand for
(b) the constancy of materials, implying con- structural comparison to say that a matrilineal
straints that help us understand courses of kinship system changes into a bilateral one, or
change in techniques and art styles, or (c) that a lineage organization develops into a seg-
the continuity or slow change of environment, mentary state. But such a formulation is not
enabling archeologists to see successive cul- a convenient shorthand for the series of events
tures as changing adaptations to the environ- of change that have taken place, since it begs
ment. the whole analysis by implying a naive and
In social anthropology, the specification of mechanical kind of continuity between the
continuity is highly problematical. To formu- two forms, like that between the fish and the
late hypotheses about change, we must be crab in the aquarium.
able to specify the connection, that is, the Let me illustrate what I mean by a simple
processes that maintain a social form, an example, again based on material from the
institution, or an organization. An item of Fur.' Fur household organization is one where
behavior does not breed an item of behavior. each adult individual is an economic unit for
What then is it that creates continuity of himself: each man or woman produces essen-
society from one day to the next? tially what he or she needs for food and cash,
Obviously, one can say that society is in the and has a separate purse. Husband and wife
minds of men-as experiences and expecta- have certain customary obligations toward
tions. If forms of behavior can be described as each other: among other services, a wife must
allocations with reference to evaluated ends, cook and brew for her husband, and he must
then what persists in the minds of men can be provide her with clothes for herself and their
understood as items of credit and debt, as children. But each of the two cultivates sep-
prestations outstanding that make the actors arate fields and keeps provisions in separate
pick up where they last left off. In more general grain stores.
terms, one can see a continuity of agreement This arrangement can be depicted as a sys-
between people about the distribution of tem of allocations (Figure 1). A woman must
assets-that is, about the location of rights in allocate a considerable amount of her time,
statuses distributed in the population. Under- varying with the season, to agricultural pro-
lying these one might expect to find shared cul- duction. By virtue of the marriage contract,
tural schemes of classification and evaluation. she is also constrained to allocate time to
But the aggregate pattern of behavior, the cooking and to brewing beer for her husband.
666 American Anthropologist [69, 1967
other activities

man's Ssaving food and cash

agricultural
time production V \ c consumption

- consumption
- woman food and cash
woman's *agricultural .

time production saving

other activities
1
FIGURE

The husband, on his side, owes it to his wife to hold organization as one of the parts of Arab
allocate some of his cash to consumption goods culture, a set of customs that people can take
for her. Such patterns of allocation are thus over.
one way of describing the structure of Fur Fortunately, the ethnographic material
family and household. provides us with a test case for the accultura-
Some of these Fur couples change their mode tion hypothesis: some Fur cultivators, in
of life and become nomadic pastoralists like the villages where they have no contact with Arab
surrounding Baggara Arabs (cf. Hiland 1967). horticultural populations, have recently taken
Together with this change in subsistence pat- up fruit-growing in irrigated orchards as a
terns one finds a change in family and house- specialized form of cash-crop production.
hold form, in that such couples establish a Among such Fur too, one finds joint house-
joint household. Their allocations change, as holds, but with a slightly different pattern of
compared to those of normal Fur villagers allocation (Figure 3). Here the conjugal pair
(Figure 2). The husband specializes in the make up a unit both for production and con-
activities that have to do with herding and sumption, jointly cultivating the orchard and
husbandry, while the woman cultivates some sharing the returns.
millet, churns butter and markets it, and cooks To maintain the force of the acculturation
food. They have a joint grain store and a joint explanation of the form of the nomad house-
purse and make up a unit for consumption. holds, one would have to look for similar fac-
In the anthropological tradition, one might tors in the case of the orchard cultivators and
reasonably formulate the hypothesis that hypothesize a change in values and accultura-
what we observe here is a case of accultura- tion to modern life among them. But it is diffi-
tion: as part of the change to a Baggara Arab cult to see the sources of influence for such ac-
way of life they also adopt the Arab household culturation; more importantly, a restatement
form. This manner of describing the course of of the nature of the continuity provides oppor-
change implies a very concrete view of house- tunities for other kinds of hypotheses. If we

other activities
man's • pastoral
time
• productionf consumption
food and cash •
saving
woman's I agriculturalsan
time production
other activities
2
FIGBRE
BARTH] On the Study of Social Change 667
other activities
man's
time

consumption
production food and cash
Ssaving
woman's
time
motheractivities
FIGURE 3

agree that behavior in households is deter- and dairying, cooperation offers great ad-
mined by several kinds of constraints, that all vantages. Similarly, where a pooling of labor
behavior is "new" in that it constitutes alloca- in specialized arboriculture and fruit-picking
tions of time and resources made or renewed gives far greater returns than millet cultiva-
in the moment of action, and that households tion, it is also clearly to the advantage of both
persist because their forms are recreated by spouses to go together over production and
behavior each day, then we need to ask what share the product jointly.
the other determinants of these allocations One may hypothesize a persistence of values
are. To explain a changing pattern of activities, in all these different situations: (a) a preference
we need not hypothesize changed categoriza- for husband-wife autonomy, and (b) a prefer-
tions and values: we can also look at the ence for the minimization of effort in produc-
changed circumstances that may well make tion. How can spouses further these interests
other allocations optimal when evaluated by in different situations where environmental
the same standards. constraints change? Where effective produc-
Indeed, the traditional range of behavior tion can be pursued individually, persons will
and allocations in a Fur village indicates that be able simultaneously to maximize both
the Fur do not subscribe to any kind of pro- interests. Where pooling of labor in orchards
hibition in joint conjugal households-such gives great returns with limited effort, this
arrangements are just not very convenient. A allocation on the balance gives the greatest
fair autonomy of husband and wife is regarded advantage to both spouses. Where they thus
as a good thing, and joint economic pursuits have a joint share in the product, it is difficult
are a potential field for conflict. Moreover, the and meaningless to divide it up when the
techniques of millet cultivation are such that mutual obligations of cooking and clothing
persons work individually in any case; and tie the spouses together anyway for certain
where a person desires help during peak aspects of consumption-so joint households
seasons, he or she can mobilize labor in bulk are generated. Finally, where complemen-
through a beer work party. In the case of irri- tarity and cooperation are not only advanta-
gated cash crops, on the other hand, the horti- geous but necessary, as in a nomadic setting,
cultural techniques are such that it may be the necessary allocations will similarly create a
convenient to cooperate. Persons with neigh- joint household, organized on a slightly
boring plots often do so; occasionally, a hus- different pattern from that of the orchard
band and wife will also decide to cultivate a owners. It is by considering all the factors of
joint field-because they "like" to work to- continuity in the situation of change-in
gether and because they can partly take turns this case both valuational and technical-
at irrigation, etc., partly cooperate. economic-that we are in a position to formu-
The advantages of this jointness in cultiva- late, and choose:gmong, the full range of rele-
tion are rather limited, only slightly reducing vant hypotheses.
the labor input required for the same result, In this example, then, we find that change in
and few spouses choose to work jointly. But household form is generated by changes in one
in a situation where one of the spouses can variable: the relative advantage of joint pro-
specialize in herding, the other in cultivation duction over separate production. This is
668 American Anthropologist [69, 1967
hardly a surprising conclusion. But if we attack units of management that dispose over re-
the problem in terms of a typology of house- sources and make allocations. Individual
hold forms, we might be led to classify house- actors will naturally make frequent mis-
hold type I (individual households for each judgments of what the pay-offs of their alloca-
person) and household type II (joint conjugal tions will be; but as the outcomes become ap-
households) as very different forms and to parent through experience, they can be realisti-
worry about how type I changes into type II, cally evaluated. If the pay-offs are great, one
which is like worrying about how the fish can expect the behavior to be emulated by
changes into the crab. Yet the situation is others; if, on the other hand, the results are
clearly not one where one household body not desirable for the actor, he will not be
changes into another household body: it is emulated, and he will also himself attempt to
one where husband-wife sets, under different revert to older allocations.
circumstances, choose to arrange their life But the process of institutionalization is not
differently. By being forced to specify the simply one of duplication; the allocations of
nature of the continuity we are forced to one unit can also have direct implications for
specify the processes that generate a house- other units. They may find their opportunity
hold form. We see the same two people making situation changed, not only through the possi-
allocations and judging results in two different bility of emulation, but also through a new
situations, or we see a population of spouses need for countermeasures or through new
performing allocations in a pattern that gener- opportunities for activity. The aggregate pat-
ates predominantly individual households in terns that can emerge in the population will
one opportunity situation, joint households in thus be shaped by the fact of competition and
another. We are led to seek the explanations the constraints of strategy. To depict these
for change in the determinants of form, and the constraints on actors and the way they will
mechanisms of change in the processes that determine the aggregate pattern of choices in
generate form. a population, we need models in the tradition
of game theory.
In our efforts to understand social change, I do not wish to minimize the complexity of
this general viewpoint shifts our attention the dynamics of such change and adjustment.
from innovation to institutionalization as the My main point is that most of the salient con-
critical phase of change. People make alloca- straints on the course of change will be found
tions in terms of the pay-offs that they hope to be social and interactional, and not simply
to obtain, and their most adequate bases for cognitive. They will derive from the existing
predicting these pay-offs are found in their social and ecological system within which
previous experience or in that of others in their change is taking place. And finally, they can
community. The kinds of new ideas that occur most usefully be analyzed with reference to
can no more determine the direction of social the opportunity situation of social persons or
change than mutation rates can determine the other units of management capable of deci-
direction of physical change. Whatever ideas sion-making and action: the mechanisms of
people may have, only those that constitute change must be found in the world of efficient
a practicable allocation in a concrete situation causes. It should follow from this that though
will be effected. And if you have a system of it may be a convenient and illuminating short-
allocations going-as you always must where hand of culture history to differentiate between
you can speak of change-it will be the rates "emergent" and "recurrent" change, the
and kinds of pay-offs of alternative allocations mechanisms involved seem to be essentially
within that system that determine whether they the same: we must use the same tools to under-
will be adopted, that is, institutionalized. The stand the continuities that constitute society
main constraints on change will thus be found in each case.
in the system, not in the range of ideas for in-
novation, and these constraints are effective In summary, I should like to submit that
in the phase of institutionalization. this general line of analysis-which is being
The comparative rates of pay-off of alterna- pursued in various ways by numerous col-
tive allocations, which determine the course of leagues in the United States and elsewhere-
institutionalization, must be seen from the makes it possible for us to improve our analyt-
point of view of actors or of other concrete ic and predictive understanding of social
BARTH] On the Study of Social Change 669
change. I have had to harness it in this presen- REFERENCES CITED
tation to specific, incomplete, and doubtless BARTH,F.
in many ways inadequate exemplifications. 1963 The role of the entrepreneur in social change in
But its essentials are a concentration on the Northern Norway. Norwegian
Bergen-Oslo, Universities
observation of events of change and a specifi- Press.
cation of the nature of continuity: the con- 1966 Modelsof socialorganization.
RoyalAnthropological
Institute
Occasional
PaperNo.23,London.
straints of the whole system that is changing. 1967 Economicspheres in Darfur.
In Themesin economic
Conversely, I would suggest that approaches R.Firth,ed.London,
anthropology. Tavistock
Publications.
that rely on typologies of overt social forms, GUNNAR
HXLAND,
or seek to characterize and compare different 1967 Ervervsform og etnisk tilh6righet. En studie av
courses of change, will not provide as ready blantfastboende
nomadiseringsprosesser hakkebrukere
i
det vestligeDarfur.University
of Bergen.Unpublished
insights into the nature of social change. thesis.
NOTES SHARP, LAURISTON
1952 Steel axes for stone-age Australians.In Human prob-
1 This material derives from Gunnar Hiland (1967) as well lems in technologicalchange. E. H. Spicer, ed. New York,
as my own field material. RussellSageFoundation.