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

Cultures are not hermetic, so they often acquire elements from abroad or they are the ones who share theirs 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 acquires customs or concepts from the others. We will also see the types that can occur and the theories that try to offer models for this phenomenon.

• Related article: "What is Cultural Psychology?"

What is cross-cultural diffusion?

Transcultural diffusion is a concept referred to anthropology, specifically to its cultural aspect, which refers to the propagation of the elements of a culture, either internal, through contact between individuals of the same culture, or external if, on the contrary, the phenomenon takes place between two people of 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 technological developments. complexes that can be the catalyst for a change of era in said civilization, so we are talking about an extraordinarily powerful process for the enrichment cultural.

The first to speak of cross-cultural 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 remained established in the glossary of anthropology as one of the fundamental terms to be able to talk about these changes in the cultures.

It is important not to confuse cross-cultural diffusion with the diffusion of innovations, another very important phenomenon that is used in anthropology and sociology but with a different meaning. In the case of the second 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 enter the Iron Age.

Types of cross-cultural diffusion

Cross-cultural diffusion can take place through different methods. We are going to review all of them to know all the possible types that can occur.

1. expansion diffusion

The first way for an item to be transmitted between (or within) cultures occurs through expansion. What does it consist of? In what the specific characteristic 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 more distant ones.

2. Diffusion by migration

The second type of generating cross-cultural diffusion is that of migration. As in the previous case, we would be talking about a cultural unit that has emerged in one place and from there has been transmitted to another location. The difference is that in this case, said cultural element is moved, not copied, so it is no longer in its original location to permanently migrate to the new one.

3. Diffusion by hierarchy

Yet another form of cross-cultural diffusion is that which occurs in a hierarchical manner. It is a form of geographical expansion with a peculiarity, and that is that the place where the new cultural element originates has a higher hierarchy than those areas to which it is going to be exported, which would somehow be subordinated and 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 make use of the cultural element in question and that is when he suffers the contagion of this, going on to take it as their own and therefore expanding its use.

5. Diffusion by association

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

Different origins of cross-cultural diffusion

We have made a tour of the types of cross-cultural diffusion in terms of the process that the cultural element takes to move to another place. Now we are going to know the mechanisms by which a culture can spread so that its components are assimilated by another.

1. 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 are related, either peacefully (commercial routes, tourism, etc.) or also aggressively, through wars and other conflicts.

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

2. indirect diffusion form

When we talk about the form of indirect diffusion we are referring to members of two different cultures that, in this case, they do not have direct contact, so the exchange of elements is carried out through a common denominator, which would be a third culture, which would be acting as an intermediary between the two.

Therefore, in this mechanism of cross-cultural diffusion, culture A would transfer 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. Form of diffusion imposed

But not all cultural exchanges occur naturally. There are many examples of dominant cultures that have forced other less powerful ones to assume characteristics that did not correspond to them in order 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 traditions.

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

• You may be interested in: "Cultural Standardization: The Effect of Globalization on Culture"

Theories on cross-cultural diffusion

There are different theoretical models that try to explain the phenomenon of cross-cultural diffusion. Let's 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 others, 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 between them, including cross-cultural diffusion and splits as it got to 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 name in German. This idea, proposed by archaeologist James Patrick Mallory, states that cross-cultural diffusion is more frequent for language elements than for other cultural elements such as those of a material nature or those that affect the social structure of the group in question.

4. evolutionary diffusionism

A theory called evolutionary diffusionism has also been raised. The approach of this model speaks of a form of cross-cultural diffusion that does not actually imply that one culture propagates an element over another, but that the element arises at the same time in separate cultures because both have reached an evolutionary stage that provides the necessary conditions for this 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 primeval cultures, but only one. It was through migratory processes that human groups were populating other corners, taking that culture to those places and experiencing changes from then on.

Authors such as Antonio de León Pinelo believed in this theory to the point of affirming that humanity had originated in what Today it would be South America and more specifically in the Bolivian area, to later begin to expand to the rest of the globe. It would be one of the first hyperdiffusionist approaches that would try to explain cross-cultural diffusion.

Bibliographic 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.