Chapter 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES This chapter presents the related literature and relevance to the study. It also includes the Synthesis of the State-of-the-Art and the Gap to be bridged. Related Literature and Studies According to Daniel Gates and Fred Log in their book ‘Human Adaptive Strategies’, there are many ways to view cultural change and all the social sciences are involved in the quest to understand the dynamics of societal change. But underlying the multiplicity of perspective change to the people involved. One researcher may try to determine which social grouping or class benefits from innovation and which pays the cost. Another researcher may investigate who within a social setting is likely to introduce new techniques of production/marketing. Still another may look at the environmental impacts of a new agricultural technique. But common to most is some effort to measure or describe the risk, cost and benefits, and success and failure involved.1It is somewhat similar to our research study, because the residents in the said island view cultural change different from one another. As time goes by, they experienced social and environmental adaptation which affects the society they are living with. Based from Conrad Phillip Kottak’s ‘Cultural Anthropology (Fifth Edition)’, cultures are traditions and customs transmitted through learning that govern the beliefs and behaviour of the people exposed to them. Children learns these traditions by growing up in a particular society. Cultural traditions include customs and opinions, developed over the generations, about proper and improper behaviour. Cultural traditions answer such questions as: How do we do things? How do we interpret the world? How do we tell right from wrong? A culture produces consistencies in behaviour and thought in a given society.2 Thus, making our study relevant to the perception of the islanders in terms of Cultural Adaptation. Moreover, according to William H. McNeill, many of the cultural change changes in the world between A.D. 1500 and the present have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the dominance and expansion of Western societies. Thus, much of the culture change in the modern world has been externally induced, if not forced. This is not to say that cultures are changing now only because of external pressures; but externally induced changes have been the most frequently studied by anthropologists and other social scientists.3 Those changes include commercialization, religion, political and economic aspects which we would later explain in this study. Likewise, Culture to Soyinka(1991), is the values, beliefs, and material objects that together, form a people’s way of life. Culture includes what we think, how we act and what we own. Culture is both a bridge to our past and a guide to the future. To understand all that culture entails, we must distinguish between thoughts and things. Non materials culture is the intangible words of ideas created by members of a society, ideas that range from altruism to zen. Material culture, on the other hand is the tangible things created by members of a society everything from ornaments to zipper.4 This was based on the Ninth Edition of Sociology by John J. Macionis of which explains the two types of culture. Furthermore, Science also has its pluses and minuses. A recent survey showed that people in the United States have great confidence- more than those in most other societies- that Science improved our lives(Inglehart et al, 2000). But surveys also show that many adults in the United States feel that Science “makes our way of life change too fast” (NORC, 2001:365) We all realize that social change comes faster all the time but we may disagree about whether a particular change is progress or a step backward.5 According to Alfred North Whitehead. “ A clash of doctrines is not a disaster but an opportunity” we have explored diverse ways in which sociological perspectives enrich our understanding of culture. Yet no purely sociological analysis; understanding culture is an interdisciplinary under taking. Thus the recent interest in culture has created opportunities for drawing the humanities into closer relation to the social science and social science disciplines themselves into closer relation with one another.6 Some of us are interested to know the past including the different kinds of culture of different islanders and to know more about their culture. During the early 1990s there was a moment of stock taking in cultural studies which involved both a codification of knowledge for student consumption and a recognition of the diversification of work in the field according to the changing circumstances of theorizing and research that had resulted largely from the “GLOBALIZATION” of cultural studies (Gray and McGuigan, 1993).7 In our modernized world, we still have to study the previous things and happenings to understand on how we arrived in this kind of present situation in the society. According to Edward Said, “No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages, and cultural geographies, but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that we’re all human life were about. Survival in fact is about connections of things.8 Because modernization, traditional culture of many islanders seems to be affected and changed. Some of them are afraid to embrace the wide range of technology. According to Carley H. Dodd, probably the most salient feature to most tourists abroad are the differences in machine technology. Unfortunately, some travellers offend host cultures by making light of their cultural methods of working out basic universal needs. Since technology is usually a matter of cultural contact with other technologies, it might be argued that no opportunities have arisen for acculturation of a technology, or perhaps the culture has rejected the technology.9 As a researcher, we are given the opportunities to explore and discover the methods of travel when we conduct our survey/ interview to the islanders, maybe to some islanders, technology has nothing to do with their cultures, so they rejected it. According to Robert E. McGinn, the cultural system of a society in various ways and is in turn sometimes affected by them. Specific foreground factors of the sort just mentioned may precipitate certain scientific and technological developments, but the way for doing so is often paved by background factors in the form of various elements of the society’s cultural system. This is why any account of the cause of some scientific or technological development that fails to take into account the role of cultural background factors is bound to be superficial. 10 Every place has its own cultural system and whatever technological development takes into account to them, they are affected in various ways. Synthesis of the State-of-the-Art The comprehensive review of related literature and studies exposed the call to conduct a study on the impact of modernization to the traditional culture of islanders. It revealed that modernization have strong hold to affect the traditional culture in many varied ways. According to Daniel Gates and Fred Log, people in a certain place view cultural change in many ways, and all the social sciences are involved in the quest to understand the dynamics of societal change. And so with Robert E. McGinn who revealed in his book Science, Technology and Society tha tin a society, there are various ways of cultural system and in turn affected by technological or scientific development. So, in other words, they are related to one another. In the book of Conrad Phillip Kottak, he stated that, cultural traditions include customs and opinions, developed over the generations, about proper and improper behaviour. Likewise, for John J. Macionis, culture is also the values, beliefs, behaviour and material objects that, together, form a people’s way of life. It involved the way we think, act and what we own. It is both a bridge to our past and a guide to the future. According to John J. Macionis and Edward Said, Technology has advantages and disadvantages to every people in the society. It may somehow change our life in progress or otherwise, a step backward putting our lives in such unfamiliar things that affects our culture. In addition, William H. McNeil also stated that one of the reason why cultures change is because of external pressures. And these cultural changes affect the commercialization, religion, political, and economic aspects. On the other hand the book of Jim McGuigan and Carley H. Dodd is different from one another, because Carley H. Dodd focus on the differences of material cultures while McGuigan exposed his studies in globalization of cultural studies. Gap to be Bridged The Gap to be Bridged in this study is mainly concern on the analysis between the modernized and traditional cultures. Specifically, the ways of developing the community in a certain society by the advent of technology without affecting the traditional culture of the islanders. Connections between the two cultures are in fact a means of survival. Notes 1Daniel Gates and Fred Log, Human Adaptive Strategies, p.172 2Conrad Phillip Kottak, Cultural Anthropology (Fifth Edition), p.2 3Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember, Cultural Anthropology (Seventh Edition), p.315-324 4John J. Macionis, Sociology (Ninth Edition), p.61 5John J. Macionis, Sociology (Ninth Edition), p.640-641 6John R. Hall and Mary Jo Neitz, Culture Sociological Perspective, p241 7Jim McGuigan, Cultural Studies in Question, p.138 8Sheena Gillespie et al., Literature Across Culture (Fifth Edition), p. XI 9Carley H. Dodd, Dynamics of Intercultural Communication, p.45 10Robert E. McGinn, Science, Technology and Society, p.56