Theory in the Study of Cultural Transmission

Abstract

The amount of research work being conducted on the process of cultural transmission has led to an active interest in theories of the process by which individuals learn to be members of their culture. Most research work conducted today is generated by some theoretical concern, and should ultimately be useful for clarifying those concerns. My task was to take stock of the theories of cultural transmission, but that stock taking indicates that there are no theories of the process of cultural transmission, and that there are only two theories con­ cerned with that portion of the total process that occurs in social interaction. My feeling is that we need theories, true theories, in order to understand that which draws our curiosity, in order to be in a position to take action in the process of cultural transmission, and, until we do understand, we need theories to communicate our thoughts, our research findings, and our conclusions. Since we need theory but do not have one, I will present a review of where we are. In this review I shall define a theory and distinguish it from theory work. I shall present theory work which conceptualizes the process of cultural trans­ mission as involving two component processes, and present theory work on those two component processes. The theory work will be used as the best advice available for conceptualizing the process of cultural transmission. I shall then compare two theories of the interactive aspect of cultural transmission to a synthetic conceptual framework. In this review I confine myself to work which is addressed to the process of cultural transmission. I will not consider reports of empirical research which may contain theoretical propositions, either explicitly or implicitly. I will not consider theories of schooling, nor shall I attempt to make explicit propositions which are implied in many review articles.