View source for Cultural diffusion

{{Short description|Archaeological theory}}
{{Anthropology}}
In [[cultural anthropology]] and [[cultural geography]], '''cultural diffusion''', as conceptualized by [[Leo Frobenius]] in his 1897/98 publication "Der westafrikanische [[Kulturkreis]]",<ref>
{{cite journal
|last1                = Frobenius
|first1               = Leo
|author-link1         = Leo Frobenius
|title                = Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis
|url                  = https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/receive/jportal_jparticle_00588013?XSL.q=Frobenius
|journal              = Petermann's Mitteilungen
|language             = de
|volume               = 43
|publication-date     = 1897
|pages                = 225 - 236
|access-date          = 22 September 2025
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
|last1                = Frobenius
|first1               = Leo
|author-link1         = Leo Frobenius
|title                = Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis
|url                  = https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/receive/jportal_jparticle_00509230?XSL.q=Frobenius
|journal              = Petermann's Mitteilungen
|language             = de
|volume               = 44
|publication-date     = 1898
|pages                = 193 - 204
|access-date          = 22 September 2025
}}
</ref>
is the spread of [[culture|cultural]] items—such as [[idea]]s, [[fashion|style]]s, [[art]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Ott
 |first1               = John
 |editor-last1         = Davis
 |editor-first1        = John
 |editor-last2         = Greenhill
 |editor-first2        = Jennifer A.
 |editor-last3         = LaFountain
 |editor-first3        = Jason D.
 |date                 = 23 January 2015
 |chapter              = Patrons, Collectors, and Markets
 |edition              = revised
 |title                = A Companion to American Art
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=p-ZpBgAAQBAJ
 |series               = Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Art History
 |publisher            = John Wiley & Sons
 |page                 = 532
 |isbn                 = 9781118542545
 |access-date          = 22 September 2025
 |quote                = [...] David Jaffee has instructively overturned normative trickle-down models of cultural diffusion, in which subaltern groups uncritically (and usually imperfectly) emulate elite culture. In so doing he avoids reifying 'high-styles' as symptomatic of superior aesthetic tastes.
}}
</ref>
religions, [[technology|technologies]], [[contact linguistics|languages]]—between individuals, whether within a single culture or from one culture to another.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Alderman
 |first1               = Derek H.
 |editor-last1         = Stoltman
 |editor-first1        = Joseph P.
 |year                 = 2012
 |chapter              = Cultural Change and Diffusion: Geographic Patterns, Social Processes, and Contact Zones
 |title                = 21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=7WrVewV6rOwC
 |series               = 21st century reference series
 |volume               = 1
 |publication-place    = Los Angeles
 |publisher            = SAGE
 |page                 = 123
 |isbn                 = 9781412974646
 |access-date          = 22 September 2025
 |quote                = The diffusion or spread of culture from a point of origin to other places and people can occur through personal contact, migration, trade, war, or mass communications. 
}}
</ref>
It is distinct from the [[diffusion of innovations]] within a specific culture. Examples of cultural diffusion include the spread of the [[war chariot]] and of iron [[smelting]] in ancient times, and the use of [[automobile]]s and Western [[business suit]]s in the 20th century.

==Types==
Five major types of cultural diffusion have been defined:
* Expansion diffusion: an innovation or idea that develops in a source area and remains strong there, while also spreading outward to other areas. This can include hierarchical, stimulus, and contagious diffusion.
* Relocation diffusion: an idea or innovation that migrates into new areas, leaving behind its origin or source of the cultural trait.
* Hierarchical diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads by moving from larger to smaller places, often with little regard to the distance between places, and often influenced by social elites.
* Contagious diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads based on person-to-person contact within a given population with no regard for hierarchies. HIV/AIDS first spread to urban neighborhoods (Hierarchical diffusion) and then spread outwards (contagious diffusion)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Domosh |first1=Mona |title=The Human Mosaic: A Cultural Approach to Human Geography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C79V2BKtKc0C&pg=PA10 |publisher=W.H. Freeman and Company |date=2013 |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-1-4292-4018-5 |pages=10–12 |edition=Twelfth}}</ref>
* Stimulus diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads based on its attachment to another concept. Occurs when a certain idea is rejected but the underlying concept is adopted. Early Siberian people domesticated reindeer only after exposure to the domesticated cattle raised by cultures to their south. They had no use for cattle but the idea of domesticated herds appealed to them, and they began domesticating reindeer, an animal they had long hunted.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Domosh |first1=Mona |title=The Human Mosaic: A Cultural Approach to Human Geography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C79V2BKtKc0C&pg=PA12 |publisher=W.H. Freeman and Company |date=2013 |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-1-4292-4018-5 |page=12 |edition=Twelfth}}</ref>

==Mechanisms==
Inter-cultural diffusion can happen in many ways. [[Human migration|Migrating populations]] will carry their culture with them. Ideas can be carried by trans-cultural visitors, such as merchants, [[Geographic exploration|explorers]], soldiers, diplomats, enslaved people, and hired artisans. Technology diffusion has often occurred by one society luring skilled scientists or workers by payments or another inducement. Trans-cultural marriages between two neighboring or interspersed cultures have also contributed. Among literate societies, diffusion can occur through letters, books, and, in modern times, through electronic media.

There are three categories of diffusion mechanisms:
* '''Direct diffusion''' occurs when two cultures are very close to each other, resulting in intermarriage, trade, and even warfare. An example of direct diffusion is between the United States and Canada, where the people living on the border of these two countries engage in hockey, which started in Canada, and baseball, which is popular in American culture.
* '''Forced diffusion''' occurs when one culture subjugates (conquers or enslaves) another culture and forces its own customs on the conquered people. An example would be the forced [[Christianization]] of the [[indigenous peoples]] of the Americas by the Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese, or the forced [[Islamization]] of West African peoples by the [[Fula people|Fula]] or of the [[Nuristanis]] by the Afghans.
* '''Indirect diffusion''' happens when traits are passed from one culture through a middleperson to another culture, without the first and final cultures being in direct contact. An example could be the presence of [[Mexican cuisine|Mexican food]] in Canada since a large territory (the United States) lies between.

Direct diffusion was common in ancient times when small groups of humans lived in adjoining settlements. Indirect diffusion is common in today's world because of the mass media and the invention of the Internet. Also of interest is the work of American historian and critic [[Daniel J. Boorstin]] in his book ''[[The Discoverers]]'', in which he provides a historical perspective on the role of explorers in the [[diffusion of innovations]] between [[civilization]]s.

==Theories==
The many models that have been proposed for inter-cultural diffusion are:
* [[Migrationism]], the spread of cultural ideas by either gradual or sudden population movements
* [[Kulturkreis|Culture circles]] diffusionism (''Kulturkreise'')—the theory that cultures originated from a small number of cultures
* "''Kulturkugel''" (a German compound meaning "culture bullet", [[Neologism|coined]] by [[J. P. Mallory]]), a mechanism suggested by Mallory<ref>In the context of [[Indo-Aryan migration]]; Mallory, "A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia". In ''The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia''. Ed. Mair. Washington D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man (1998)</ref> to model the scale of [[invasion]] vs. gradual migration vs. diffusion. According to this model, local continuity of material culture and social organization is stronger than linguistic continuity, so that cultural contact or limited migration regularly leads to linguistic changes without affecting material culture or social organization.<ref>The term is a 'half-facetious' mechanical analogy, imagining a "bullet" of which the tip is material culture and the "charge" is language and social structure. Upon "intrusion" into a host culture, migrants will "shed" their material culture (the "tip") while possibly still maintaining their "charge" of language and, to a lesser extent, social customs (viz., the effect is a [[diaspora]] culture, which depending on the political situation may either form a [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]] or a [[superstratum]] within the host culture).</ref>
* [[Trans-cultural diffusion#Hyperdiffusionism|Hyperdiffusionism]]—the theory that all cultures originated from one culture

A concept that has often been mentioned in this regard, which may be framed in the evolutionary diffusionism model, is that of "an idea whose time has come"—whereby a new cultural item appears almost simultaneously and independently in several widely separated places, after certain prerequisite items have diffused across the respective communities. This concept was invoked with regard to the independent development of [[calculus]] by [[Isaac Newton|Newton]] and [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibnitz]], and the inventions of the airplane and of the [[electronic computer]].

==Hyperdiffusionism==
{{Main|Hyperdiffusionism in Archaeology}}
Hyperdiffusionists deny that [[parallel evolution]] or independent invention took place to any great extent throughout history; they claim that all major inventions and all cultures can be traced back to a single culture.<ref>Legend and lore of the Americas before 1492: an encyclopedia of visitors, explorers, and immigrants, Ronald H. Fritze, 1993, p. 70</ref>

Early theories of hyperdiffusionism can be traced to ideas about South America being the origin of mankind. [[Antonio de León Pinelo]], a Spaniard who settled in [[Bolivia]], claimed in his book ''Paraíso en el Nuevo Mundo'' that the [[Garden of Eden]] and the creation of man had occurred in present-day Bolivia and that the rest of the world was populated by [[Human migration|migration]]s from there. Similar ideas were also held by Emeterio Villamil de Rada; in his book ''La Lengua de Adán'' he attempted to prove that [[Aymaran languages|Aymara]] was the original language of mankind and that humanity had originated in [[Sorata]] in the Bolivian [[Andes]]. The first scientific defence of humanity originating in South America came from the Argentine [[paleontologist]] [[Florentino Ameghino]] in 1880, who published his research in ''La antigüedad del hombre en el Plata''.<ref>Indians of the Andes: Aymaras and Quechuas, Harold Osborne, 2004, pp. 2–3</ref>

The work of [[Grafton Elliot Smith]] fomented a revival of hyperdiffusionism in 1911; he asserted that copper–producing knowledge spread from [[Egypt]] to the rest of the world along with [[megalithic]] culture.<ref>''The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists,'' Gérald Gaillard, 2004, p. 48</ref> Smith claimed that all major inventions had been made by the ancient [[Egyptians]] and were carried to the rest of the world by migrants and voyagers. His views became known as "Egyptocentric-Hyperdiffusionism".<ref>Megaliths, Myths and Men: An Introduction to Astro-Archaeology, Peter Lancaster Brown, 2000, p. 267</ref> [[W. J. Perry|William James Perry]] elaborated on Smith's hypothesis by using [[ethnographic]] data. Another hyperdiffusionist was [[FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan|Lord Raglan]]; in his book ''How Came Civilization'' (1939) he wrote that instead of Egypt all culture and civilization had come from [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>''Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency,'' Bruce G. Trigger, 1998, p. 101</ref> Hyperdiffusionism after this did not entirely disappear, but it was generally abandoned by mainstream academia.

==Medieval Europe==
Diffusion theory has been advanced{{according to whom|date=July 2015}} as an explanation for the "[[European miracle]]", the adoption of technological innovation in [[Middle Ages|medieval Europe]] which by the 19th century culminated in European technological achievement surpassing the [[Science in the medieval Islamic world|Islamic world]] and [[Ming dynasty|China]].<ref>Carlo M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial revolution: European Society and Economy 1000–1700, W.W. Norton and Co., New York (1980) {{ISBN|0-393-95115-4}}</ref> Technological imports to medieval Europe include [[gunpowder]], [[clock]] mechanisms, [[shipbuilding]], paper, and the [[windmill]]; however, in each of these cases, Europeans not only adopted the technologies but improved the manufacturing scale, inherent technology, and applications to a point clearly surpassing the evolution of the original invention in its country of origin.

There are also some historians who have questioned whether Europe really owes the development of such inventions as gunpowder, the compass, the windmill or printing to the Chinese or other cultures.<ref>Peter Jackson: ''The Mongols and the West'', Pearson Longman 2005, p. 315</ref><ref>[[Donald F. Lach]]: ''Asia in the Making of Europe''. 3 volumes, Chicago, Illinois, 1965–93; I:1, pp. 82–83</ref><ref>Robert Bartlett: ''The Making of Europe. Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950–1350'', Allen Lane, 1993</ref>

However, historian Peter Frankopan argues that influences, particularly trade, through the Middle East and Central Asia to China through the silk roads have been overlooked in traditional histories of the "rise of the West". He argues that the Renaissance was funded with trade with the east (due to the demise of Byzantium at the hands of Venice and the Fourth Crusade), and that the trade allowed ideas and technology to be shared with Europe. But the constant warfare and rivalry in Europe meant there was extreme evolutionary pressure for developing these ideas for military and economic advantage, and a desperate need to use them in expansion.<ref>'The Silk Roads: A New History of the World' {{ISBN|9781101912379}}</ref>

==Disputes==
{{Further|Migrationism and diffusionism}}
While the concept of diffusion is well accepted in general, conjectures about the existence or the extent of diffusion in some specific contexts have been hotly disputed. An example of such disputes is the proposal by [[Thor Heyerdahl]] that similarities between the culture of [[Polynesia]] and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the [[Andes]] are due to diffusion from the latter to the former—[[Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories#Claims of Polynesian, Melanesian, and Austronesian contact|a theory]] that currently has few supporters among professional [[Anthropology|anthropologists]].<ref>Robert C. Suggs ''The Island Civilizations of Polynesia'', New York: New American Library, pp. 212-224</ref><ref>Kirch, P. (2000). ''On the Roads to the Wind: An archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact''. [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]]: [[University of California Press]], 2000</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Barnes, S.S.|title=Ancient DNA of the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)|url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/People/Faculty/Hunt/pdfs/Barnesetal2006.pdf|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=33|issue=11|page=1536|year=2006|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.006|bibcode=2006JArSc..33.1536B |display-authors=etal|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719205425/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/People/Faculty/Hunt/pdfs/Barnesetal2006.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-19}}</ref><ref>Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, [[Genetics|genetic]] testing found that the [[mitochondrial DNA]] of the Polynesians is more similar to people from southeast Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Friedlaender, J.S.|title=The genetic structure of Pacific Islanders|journal=PLOS Genetics|volume=4|issue=1|pages=e19|year=2008 |pmid=18208337|pmc=2211537|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0040019|display-authors=etal |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Contributors==
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2015}}
Major contributors to inter-cultural diffusion research and theory include:
{{Div col|colwidth=16em}}
* [[Franz Boas]]
* [[Anne Walbank Buckland]]
* [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo]]
* [[Leo Frobenius]]
* [[Cyrus H. Gordon]]
* [[Fritz Graebner]]
* [[A. C. Haddon]]
* [[Alice Beck Kehoe]]
* [[David H. Kelley]]
* [[A. L. Kroeber]]
* [[W. J. Perry]]
* [[Friedrich Ratzel]]
* [[W. H. R. Rivers]]
* [[Everett Rogers]]
* [[Wilhelm Schmidt (linguist)|Wilhelm Schmidt]]
* [[Grafton Elliot Smith]]
* [[E. B. Tylor]]
* [[Clark Wissler]]
* [[Thomas Friedman]]
{{Div col end}}

==See also==
* [[Cultural appropriation]]
* [[Demic diffusion]]
* [[Diffusion of innovations]]
* [[Meme]]
* [[Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
* Frobenius, Leo. ''Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis. Petermanns Mitteilungen 43/44'', 1897/98
* Kroeber, Alfred L. (1940). "Stimulus diffusion." ''American Anthropologist'' 42(1), Jan.–Mar., pp.&nbsp;1–20
* Rogers, Everett (1962) ''Diffusion of innovations''. New York: Free Press of Glencoe, Macmillan Company
* [[John L. Sorenson|Sorenson, John L.]] & Carl L. Johannessen (2006) "Biological Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Voyages." In: ''Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World''. Ed. Victor H. Mair. [[University of Hawaii Press]], pp.&nbsp;238–297. {{ISBN|978-0-8248-2884-4}}; {{ISBN|0-8248-2884-4}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/diffusion.htm "Diffusionism and Acculturation"] by Gail King and Meghan Wright, ''Anthropological Theories'', M.D. Murphy (ed.), Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama.

{{Culture}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anthropology]]
[[Category:Cultural exchange]]
[[Category:Cultural history]]
[[Category:Human migration]]
[[Category:Hyperdiffusionism]]
[[Category:Majority–minority relations]]
[[Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact]]