109 cultural lag Ogburn, the explanation of social change in modern societies consists fundamentally in four factors re- The thesis of ‘‘cultural lag’’ formulated by the North lated to the material : inventions, accumula- American sociologist William F. Ogburn can be con- tion of inventions, their diffusion and the adaptation sidered among the earliest sociological attempts to to them. explain social change from social-cultural premises This approach implies a ‘‘middle’’ technological and not psycho-biological ones. Indeed, social change determinism (neither ‘‘hard nor ‘‘soft’’), because is one of the most important theoretical problems in Ogburn puts the emphasis on a temporary mal- sociology. Almost all the sociologists that belonged to adjustment. That is to say, technology does not so-called classical sociology sought to understand the cause a mechanical and instantaneous change, but process of social change. rather the theory of cultural lag only shows that the The thesis of cultural lag is well-known among technical invention chronologically comes before scholars of technology because Ogburn has been the subsequent changes in the social field. These considered a technological determinist for his explan- social changes then have to adjust to the techno- ation of social change with respect to logical invention. In this sense, there is a ‘‘middle’’ (or technology). Ogburn developed the theory of technological determinism because the adjustment cultural lag mainly in Social Change with Respect to has its own rhythm marked by society and not by Cultural and Original Nature, published in 1922 (cf. the technological innovation. Ogburn 1966). Throughout the book, Ogburn builds the explanatory key to social change, not appealing to Material Culture; Technology, the traditional explanation in terms of evolution of SEE ALSO: Science, and Culture inherited mental ability or, as he also calls it, ‘‘original nature’’. Previously, sociologists emphasized bio- logical factors as variables of social change. However, REFERENCE Ogburn, W. F. (1966) Social Change with Respect with the elimination of the biological factor, Ogburn to Cultural and Original Nature. Dell Publishing, appeals to purely cultural factors to explain social New York. change, and here is where he introduces his theory of cultural lag formulated in the following way: SUGGESTED READING Romero Mon˜ivas, J. (2007) La Tesis del Cultural lag. A cultural lag occurs when one of two parts of culture In: Reyes, R. (ed.), Diccionario crı´tico de ciencias sociales. which are correlated changes before or in greater de- Plaza & Valde´s, Editorial Complutense, Madrid. gree than the other part does, thereby causing less JESU´ S ROMERO MON˜ IVAS adjustment between the two parts that existed previ- ously. (1966: 96)

According to Ogburn, material culture is the field cultural relativism that changes first and the rest of socio-cultural envir- The concept of cultural relativism refers to the onments – organizational, axiological, juridical, ideo- idea that one needs to understand all within logical, etc. – have to adapt to it in order to avoid the the context of their own terms (i.e., values, norms, temporary maladjustment or the lack of harmony standards, customs, knowledges, lifeways, world- between technology and cultural ambience. How- views, etc.) rather than judge them from ever, he recognizes that material culture does not the perspective of one’s own culture. This ideal of always change as it has before, although in modern cross-cultural understanding requires an epistemo- societies this is, in fact, the main form of social change logical ‘‘suspension’’ of one’s own cultural biases – usually the social dimension adjusts to changes in in order to comprehend an unfamiliar cultural world. the technological dimension. This means that the At the turn of the twentieth century, Franz Boas several parts of a given culture react with regard to applied the concept of cultural relativism to the changes at different rates and in different ways. theories and methods of anthropology, shifting According to Ogburn, this process of adaptation or cross-cultural research from the ‘‘armchair’’ to adjustment of the cultural non-material fields to ‘‘the field,’’ and encouraging his students to engage technology can take a great deal of time, and through with the people they studied through the cultural that transition what he calls cultural lag takes place; immersion and participant-observation that now that is to say, a ‘‘cultural delay’’ or ‘‘maladjustment’’ characterizes ethnographic fieldwork. Along with between the new technology and the diverse aspects the concept of ‘‘historical particularism’’ (the idea of the social field. In other words, culture tends to lag that each culture has its own particular history and behind the advances of technology. Thus, for dialectics), the principles espoused by Boas and his