Creolization: Sociocultural Aspects

Abstract

The concept of creolization has been used in anthropology to refer to processes of social and cultural change that take place in societies characterized by rapid social flux. It is borrowed from linguistics and used in analogy with the processes of language creolization that appear in some types of sociolinguistic contact. In anthropology, the concept of creolization has been used in three different ways: as a metaphor capturing the elusive processes of integration of new cultural forms; as a synonym of hybridization associated with globalization; and as a model for the study of language change directly derived from the linguistic model of creolization. Discussion of the applicability of this concept to the study of social change must address the nature of the creolization process itself; the relationship of creolization to globalization; and the definition of the concept of culture.