Stress is defined as a condition in which some part, or the whole, of the social organism is threatened with more or less serious damage. While using organismic analogy, Wallace has also included the cells and organs of persons as elements of the system while narrating the stress factor in society. He provides example by saying, lowering of sugar level hunger in the fluid matrix of the body cells of one group of persons in a society is a stress in the society as a whole.
Wallace researched the Iroquois Indians in developing his revitalization model. Two movements are described in some detail. The first movement, around , focused on the outsider Hiawatha. While living in the forests because of depression due to the death of his wife and family, he was visited by the god Dekanawidah. Meeting this god face-to-face became for him a "moment of moral rebirth. Iroquois culture was revitalized by this prophetic message, which enabled the tribe to develop military and economic power during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Wallace , The second movement occurred toward the end of the eighteenth century when the Iroquois were living in poverty and dishonor.
They were demoralized by whiskey, expelled from their traditional lands, and scattered among tiny reservations between rapidly developing white settlements.
Were they, as many other aboriginal peoples, to disappear as a distinct cultural group? Would they become a marginal people on the periphery of white society? At this time of cultural demoralization, a past chief named Handsome Lake, who reflected his culture's demoralization, had the first of a number of visions from representatives of Creator God.
He was given a glimpse of heaven and hell and told that the Iroquois must become new men or be sent to hell. Handsome Lake began to insist the Iroquois to stop quarrelling, cease drinking, reject witchcraft, and follow his new code of conduct Gaiwiio, "good word. He challenged the men to work the fields as the white man, a job traditionally assigned to women. He pushed them to follow advantageous white practices without losing their cultural identity. Handsome Lake's code revitalized the Iroquois.
They became moderate, hard-working farmers. Today his religion continues to be "followed by hundreds of Iroquois on reservations in New York and Canada" Wallace , ; Ember , Then Wallace has headed to show what "revitalization movements" revitalize. Whenever an individual who is under chronic, physiologically measurable stress, receives repeated information, which indicates that his mazeway does not lead to action which reduces the level of stress.
Then the person fall in a state of perplexity where he needs to decide whether he will continue with the present mazeway and tolerating the stress, or change the mazeway in an attempt to reduce the stress. Changing the mazeway involves changing the total Gestalt of his image of self, society, and culture, of nature and body, and of ways of action.
It may also be necessary to make changes in the "real" system in order to bring mazeway and "reality" into similarity. As a result when effort is given in order to change the mazeway and "real" system together for effective stress reduction and a number of persons cooperate in such an effort is called a revitalization movement.
This approach employs a method of controlled comparison for the study of processes involving longer or shorter diachronic sequences vide Eggan and Steward It is hypothesized that events or happenings of various types have common structures independent of local cultural differences.
After a severe physical disaster, for example, in cities in Japan, the United States, and Germany, it will postulate a sequence of happening what in return will display a uniform pattern, highlighted but not covered by local differences in culture. These types of events may be called behavioral units. Their uniformity is based on common human attributes, both physical and psychological.
Wallace uses his research of the Iroquois to formulate his model of revitalization movements. Despite cultural variations, he perceives that "such movements follow a remarkably uniform program" throughout the world , He sees five stages of a revitalization cycle: the steady state, the period of increased individual stress, the period of cultural distortion, the period of revitalization, and the new steady stage.
Conceptions of birth, life, and death are clear and believable. The stage is characterized by a "moving equilibrium," with change due to gradual flow rather than deliberate intent by members of the society , Since the society is basically satisfied with the status quo. Some severe but still tolerable stress may remain general in the population, and a fairly constant incidence of persons under intolerable stress may employ "deviant" techniques.
Gradual modification or even rapid substitution of techniques for satisfying some needs may occur without disturbing the steady state. There are two conditions for the steady state to work even after a slide modification or substitution 1 the techniques for satisfying other needs are not seriously hampered with, and 2 abandonment of a given technique by replacing with a more efficient technique for reducing one need and also to leave the former technique to accomplish other needs with the prospect of satisfaction.
During this stage, the Chontal Indian would not question the fact that, if he keeps the rituals, his animals will live. If one animal at a time dies, he would likely attribute it to his neglect in meticulously keeping very complicated rituals.
Members of society have difficulty coping with their problems. Tension may arise due to population explosion, information explosion, transitions from a face-to-face to an impersonal society, warfare, drought, disease, the encroachment of Westernism, or the death of more than one animal in one's group. Over a number of years, individual members of a population which may be "primitive" or "civilized," either a whole society or a class, caste, religious, occupational, acculturational, or other definable social group experience increasingly severe stress as a result of the decreasing efficiency of certain stress-reduction techniques.
The culture may remain essentially unchanged or it may undergo considerable changes, but in either case there is continuous reduction in its efficiency in satisfying needs. The Chontal Indian would ask, "Why have the rituals not protected my animals? Clair , When a culture does not have answers to societal dilemmas, it becomes ripe for change. At a certain point, members of a society can seek alternative way. Initial consideration of a substitute way is likely to increase stress because it arouses anxiety over the possibility that the substitute way will be even less effective than the original, and that it may also actively interfere with the execution of other ways.
In other words, it poses the threat of mazeway collapse. In order to relieve the tension created by such dilemmas, cultural innovators begin to look for internal cultural solutions. Or an outsider, like a missionary, may suggest new options not previously considered by the culture.
At this point anyone considering a new way is regarded as a deviant; his options are revolutionary. Society is in a state of unrest. Cultural needs are not being met. Within such a society there is an increasing imbalance and instability. What Wallace calls "the regressive response" exhibits itself in alcoholism, extreme passivity and indolence, the development of highly ambivalent dependency relationships, intragroup violence, disregard of kinship and sexual mores, irresponsibility in public officials, states of depression and self-reproach, and probably a variety of psychosomatic and neurotic disorders.
Rigid persons apparently prefer to tolerate high levels of chronic stress rather than make systematic adaptive changes in the mazeway. More flexible persons try out various limited mazeway changes in their personal lives, attempting to reduce stress by addition or substitution of mazeway elements with more or less concern for the Gestalt of the system.
The culture is "internally distorted" because "the elements are not harmoniously related but are mutually inconsistent and interfering" , As a result, the society is extremely open to any change as people search for alternatives around which to revitalize society.
Change is anticipated and even demanded for the revitalization of society. The new way, which was considered deviant, is now an alternative. The Chontal Indian who has seen much of his flock die no longer believes in the old Christopagan rituals and is extremely receptive to a message about a caring, sovereign Creator God.
However, if revitalization does not take place, anomie will continue to increase and the process of cultural worsening can lead to cultural breakdown. The populations of disintegrating societies can die off, splinter into autonomous groups, or be absorbed into a larger, better integrated society.
Wallace says, "This process of deterioration can, if not checked, lead to the death of the society" , For example, the Yir Yoront of Australia have failed to survive as a distinct cultural entity because the symbol of paternal authority, the stone axe, was damaged by the early introduction of steel axes into the culture Sharp Population may fall even to the point of extinction as a result of increasing death rates and decreasing birth rates; the society may be defeated in war, invaded, its population dispersed and its customs suppressed; factional disputes may nibble away areas and segments of the population.
But these dire events are not infrequently forestalled, or at least postponed, by a revitalization movement. Many such movements are religious in character, and such religious revitalization movements must perform at least six major tasks , : 1 Mazeway reformulation: An individual in the culture has a mazeway reformulation: He begins to picture his society in a new and different way.
His mazeway--his personal perspective on his culture's worldview--no longer correlates with mainstream interpretations. Whether the movement is religious or secular, the reformulation of the mazeway generally seems to depend on a restructuring of elements and subsystems which have already attained currency in the society and may even be in use, and which are known to the person who is to become the prophet or leader.
These moments are often called inspiration or revelation. Every religious revitalization movement, according to Wallace, has been originally considered in one or several hallucinatory visions by a single individual.
A supernatural being appears to the prophet-to-be, explains his own and his society's troubles as being entirely or partly a result of the violation of certain rules, and promises individual and social revitalization if the commands are followed and the rituals practiced.
These dreams express: 1. A new mazeway Gestalt is presented, with more or less innovation in culture system. The prophet feels a need to tell others of his experience, and may have definite feelings of missionary or messianic obligation. Generally he shows evidence of a radical inner change in personality soon after the dream experience: a reduction of old and chronic physical criticisms, a more active and purposeful way of life, greater confidence in interpersonal relations, the dropping of deep-seated habits like alcoholism.
Hence these visions can be called "personality transformation dreams. The dreamer starts to preach his revelations to people, in a prophetic or messianic spirit. Thus he becomes a prophet. The doctrinal and behavioral orders which he preaches carry two fundamental themes: firstly, the person who will convert himself to the innovated system will come under the care and protection of certain supernatural beings: and secondly, both he and his society will benefit significantly from a discovery with some definable new cultural system.
The preaching may take many forms e. The power of the prophet must be transferred to others, or the movement is apt to die with the prophet who gave it birth. This organization will be constituted by three orders of personnel: the prophet; the disciples; and the followers. People may be converted to the new religion or culture system through different ways, such as : some experience an delighted vision in private circumstances; some are convinced by more or less rational arguments, some by considerations of practicality and opportunity.
Like the prophet, many of the converts undergo a revitalizing personality transformation. According to Weber, this sort of leader will have mysterious authority and moral superiority; all Followers will defer to the charismatic leader not because of his status in an existing authority structure but because of a fascinating personal "power," often ascribed to supernatural sources and validated in successful performance.
These resistances can be slight and short-lived but more commonly is strong-minded and resourceful, and is held either by a powerful faction within the society or by agents of a dominant foreign society. That is why it would be essential to use various strategies of adaptation: doctrinal modification; political and diplomatic tactic; and force. These strategies are mutually inclusive, once chosen, and necessarily maintained through the life of the movement.
Wallace referred that he has evidence, which proves that these original doctrines are continuously modified by the prophet, who responds to various criticisms and affirmation by adding to, emphasizing, playing down, and eliminating selected elements of the original visions.
Thus the modification actually serves the interest of the groups and makes it more acceptable to special interest groups, may give it a better "fit" to the population's cultural and personality patterns, and may take account of the changes occurring in the general milieu. In instances where organized opposition to the movement develops, a crystallization of counter aggression against unbelievers frequently occurs, and the modified doctrine then emphasizes shifts from cultivation of the ideal to combat against the unbeliever opposition.
When the whole or a controlling portion of the population comes to accept the new religion with its various commands, a visible social revitalization occurs. This revitalization can be felt and understood by the reduction of the personal declining symptoms of individuals, through extensive cultural changes, and by a keen participation on some organized program of group action.
If the group action program in non ritual spheres is effective in reducing stress- generating situations, it becomes established as normal in various economic, social, and political institutions and customs.
Seldom the movement organization asserts or maintains a totalitarian control over all aspects of the transformed culture; more usually, once the desired transformation has occurred, the organization contracts and maintains responsibility only for the preservation of doctrine and the performance of ritual. With the mere passage of time, this poses the problems of "routinization".
Once cultural transformation has been accomplished and the new cultural system has proved itself viable, and once the movement organization has solved its problems of routinization, a new steady state may be said to exist.
It will be again a state where everything is stable and the means of meeting the needs are satisfactory. Critique of Wallace's "Revitalization Movements" For the Christian missionary Wallace's concept of revitalization movements has both strengths and limitations.
Its basic asset is that it provides a model through which change can be perceived from the animistic to the Christian as well as from one animistic system to another. Yet the missionary must understand the conceptual framework out of which Wallace is writing. Wallace, as a functional anthropologist, views revitalization as a social process set in force when the needs of society are not being met.
Three major negative critiques can be made of his model from a missiological perspective. First, his model is this-worldly emphasizing the human dynamic in the world without perceiving the divine. Catholicism adopted Yule, the winter solstice celebration of Pagans, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Zuni merged their native religion with Catholicism, incorporating images of Christ into their cloths and jewelry. Revitalization movements are frequently associated with religion. They often occur in disorganized societies due to warfare, revolutions, etc. They usually call for the destruction of existing social institutions in order to resolve conflict and stabilize the culture through reorganization.
Most recorded revitalization movements were an adaptive response to rapidly changing social and economic circumstances brought on by contact with an outside culture. The cargo cults of Melanesia are one example of movements that make a conscious effort to build an ideology that will be relevant to changing cultural needs.
Rituals were performed in the belief that they would result in increased wealth and prosperity in line with the European idea of material wealth. Lavenda Robert H. Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology, 4th edition. Laufer, Berthold. Origin of the word shaman. American Anthropologist 19 3 : Also, DOI: Warms, Richard.
Sacred Realms: Readings in the Anthropology of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press. Skip to main content. Chapter Supernatural Belief Systems. Search for:. Religious Change Religious beliefs and rituals can be the catalyst or vehicle of social change. The Ghost Dance. Another example of a revitalization movement is the Ghost Dance that swept through western Native American cultures from The Ghost Dance was begun by a Pauite, Wovoka.
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