LECTURE 3

DIFFUSIONISM THEORY IN ORAL LITERATURE

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

State the basic tenets of diffusionist theory

Discuss how the tenets can be used to analyze genres of oral literature

Use the principles of diffusionist theory to analyze genres of literature

-Diffusion refers to the process of transmission of culture elements from one society to another. It can be defined as the
spread of a cultural item from its place of origin to other areas (Titiev 1959) It is the process by which separate culture
traits are transferred from one society to another , through migration, trade, war or other contact (Winthrop 1991). It
has its roots in anthropology.

-Cultural diffusionist theory was propagated by a group of Austro-German anthropologists led by

Fritz Graebner. Wilhelm Schmidt and William Graham who rejected evolutionism in favour of a belief that a few core
cultures influenced all societies.

Frizr, Robert, Graebner developed the theory of culture circle. He regarded cultural diffusion based on some form of
contact between societies, as the mechanism through which cultural traits spread . According to him similarities
between cultures were the result of cultural influences based on contacts and borrowings.

-This school of thought originated in mid nineteenth century as a means of understanding the spread of human culture
across the world. Scholars had begun to study not only the cultures of advanced people but also those of illiterate
people ( Beals and Hoijer, 1959) Studying these diverse cultures created the issue of discerning how humans progressed
from primeval conditions to superior states (Kuklick 1996) one of the questions which arise is whether human culture
had evolved in a manner similar to biological evolution or whether culture spread from innovation centers by diffusion
(Hugill 1996)

- It was an attempt to understand the nature of culture in terms of origin of culture traits and their spread from one
society to another. Versions of thought include:

Heliocentric diffusion: all cultures originated from one culture centre.

Culture circles: cultures originated from a limited number of culture centers.

Society is influenced by others but the process of diffusion is dependent and arbitrary

- Linton (1936) identifies three processes through which diffusion takes place i.e presentation of new culture element(s)
to the society; acceptance by society; and integration of the accepted element(s) into the pre-existing culture.

-The following are major features of diffusion:

The nature and extent of diffusion of a culture trait largely depends on its ready availability for acceptance in another
culture.

The acceptance of a culture trait depends on utility and compatibility with the traits of the culture which receives it.
Ideally, a trait, which stands out in sharp conflict with the traits of the receiving culture is least likely to be accepted
(Linton,1936)

Diffusion of any culture trait depends upon contact between societies. It is least likely that a society, which exists in
complete isolation, incorporates traits that belong to other societies. In other words, the greater the physical distance
between groups, the lesser is the likelihood that diffusion would take place between them. Culture traits are taken up by
societies that are close to their places of origin before societies that are far removed or have less direct contact with
their places of origin.

The changes or modifications in a culture trait (that has already undergone diffusion and reached other societies) lag
behind the original culture trait. Hence, even long after the modified culture trait is established in its place of origin, its
original form would survive and continue to exist at the margins of the diffusion one.

The traits that originate in a particular center may spread irregularly and at different speeds

(vi) The rate of spread of new traits gets retarded when they are not or are reluctantly accepted. This suggests that
the process of diffusion comes to a halt. However it gets considerably inhibited because groups that do not readily
accept a new trait may create a barrier between the place of its origin and the groups for whom exposure and
accessibility to it is routed through them. These groups could have been willing to incorporate the new trait in their
cultures provided the opportunity was made available to them. Often, even if the intermediate reluctant groups accept
the trait, much time is lost. Rate of diffusion of different traits, therefore, is not uniform.

Though diffusion of single culture traits does take place, those that are functionally related tend to get diffused together.

- The diffusionist theory maintains that each tale has a traceable biography and bSh an original and pun rent distribution.
The distribution is widened through historical contact and geographical contact between peoples. The contact enables
the adoption and modification of tales by manipulating the plot, subject matter, characters and actions to attain a local
appeal but retaining the original motif.

-The German school of diffusion

It was founded by Fredrick Ratzel (1844-1904). Other proponents were Leo Frobenius (1873- 1938), Fritz Graebner
(1877-1934), and Wilhelm Schmidt (1868-1954). Like British diffusionists, German diffusionists agreed that human beings
are largely uninventive; and that spread of traits and their recombination into new patterns and combinations led to
cultural developments. While the British proposed the diffusion of traits in their singular capacity, the Germans
proposed that culture complexes (a combination of traits e.g., beliefs, and practices associated with a phenomenon)
diffused through actual movement or migration of people.

- Schmidt (1939) explains, "During these migrations peoples and cultures came into contact with each other and t h i s
i n f l u e n c e d each other; this influence has been the cause of new creations and modifications of culture.

-The German perspective came to be known as the cultural historical school, or the culture-circle school, and historical
ethnology.

-German diffusionists acknowledged similarities between cultures (many of which were separated from each other by
long distances) to diffusion or historical contact till a time when absence of such a contact was conclusively proven. This
means that unless absence of historical contact was established they assumed that migration leading to diffusion had
taken place between cultures that exhibited similarities.
-This culture-circle school explains the spread of oral literature among different cultures. People who were taken as slaves, from Africa spread plots
of stories to the continents where they were taken as slaves, for example Europe and Arabia. Many similarities have been discovered in plots of
stories in Africa and these continents. The historical and geographical origins of these tales have been found in Africa. The following motifs are
classified as originating from Africa :
- Tug-of -war

Delivery of wrong message to determine man's life and death

- Human victory over ogre.

-While diffusion did provide an explanation for spread of culture traits it could not explain the origin of the trait. In
focusing on the spread of culture traits from one area and its acceptance by another area, it minimized the creativity of
human beings.

-One of the major debates in anthropological literature of earlier times was on diffusion versus invention. It was said
that diffusion could not account for independent invention or for culture change. Situations of prolonged periods of
contact between two or more culture in which each adhered to its own distinctive way of life or those in which culture
contact leads to selective borrowing pose a threat to the validity of the general premise of diffusion.

- Also remaining unexplained is the situation of culture that have had no contact with each other or with any other
culture, yet exhibiting similarities and parallels with each other.

-Notwithstanding the limitations, the diffusionist school captured the attention of anthropologists for a long time
nurturing their faculty of critical appraisal.

-The diffusionist school represented a modest attempt to explain the, presence of similar culture traits in widely
separated cultures through contact between them.

- It ' was not easy to discount it as a principle devoid of any merit. It provided the foundation for the development of
crucial ideas and concepts that were employed not only by

anthropologists but specialists of other disciplines. In doing so it served as a melting post of inter-disciplinary critical
thinking.