Internal Colonialism: Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536-1966 (International Library of Society)

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INTERNAL ~~
1 Thus a sample of the most noted case studies includes such societies as Indonesia (Clifford Geertz, Agricultural Involution, Berkeley: 1963); Ceylon (W. H. Wriggins, 'Impediments to unity in new nations: the case of Ceylon,' American Political Science Review, 55,2 (1961), pp. 313-20);andGhana(David Apter, Ghana in Transition, Princeton: 1963). 2 A useful definition of diffusion is A. L. Kroeber, 'Diffusionism' in E. R. A. Seligman and A. Johnson, eds, The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Ill (1930), reprinted in A. and E. Etzioni, eds, Social Change: Sources, Pallerns and Consequences (New York: 1964). 3 This discussion does not pretend to offer a review of the literature bearing on these problems, but only on those general theoretical images of the mechanism of national development, i.e., a particular problem for the theory of social

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tional normative orientation. 1

The cultural theories thus seek to explain differences of values, norms, and life-styles among these collectivities as a function of the relative isolation of the peripheral group from the mainstream culture of the core. If only the choice between tradition and modernity could somehow be placed before individuals of the p_eri~eE~l"group, some have felt, modermty would easily win over. The solution to this problem of persisting cultural differences is, first, to_~_!i.!!!Jll~.eJl wide rj!nge of intercollectivit)l transac~hen, to let time work its in.!:v~~ble course~ds ellelltuaLcultural-int~gratiQ!!· Emile Dur etm presented an early statement of this theory when he discussed the effect of an increase in transactions between cultural

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change. There is a vast anthropological literature on Third World societies which, , categorizes a variety of types of internal ethnic stratification as being more or...-less •pluralistic, • without, however, attempting to theoretically account for changes in these situations. 1 Max Weber is among the many writers who have assumed this to be a defining characteristic of the traditional life-style, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of

Capitalism (New York: 1958), p. 59. See also Wilbert E. Moore and Arnold Feldman, Labor Commitment and Social Change in Developing Areas (New York: 1960). For a somewhat skeptical view see Elliot J. Berg, •Backward sloping labor supply functions in dual economies-the Africa case,' Quarterly Journal

of Economics, 75, 3 (1961), pp. 468-92.

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TOWARDS A THEORY OF ETHNIC CHANGE

THE PROBLEM

groups as if it were analogous to the physical process of osmosis. 1 Cultural differences between collectivities would in effect be leveled, presumably according to the relative volumes (magnitudes?) of the respective groups.

This is one of the biological metaphors which Professor Parsons has so rightly disparaged in Durkheim's work. However, the anthropological version of this image, namely the process of acculturation, remains a rather current perspective in the study of intergroup relations. Acculturation is thought to occur when 'groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups.' 2 Like osmosis, it is often conceived to proceed automatically and irreversibly. ~ begnn, the diffusion of sym~~and i~titutions from the core to the ~ripb!'ry_ shou~d lead to a_graOual rapp.rocllement, to a stable cultural equilibrium. 3 The proposition- that the greater· the-frequency of iiltera.i:lion between collectivities, the greater the probability they will become more alike is sometimes held to follow from the experimental study of small groups. 4 Since it is not difficult to find evidence that intergroup 1 'Some have seen [the increase in national homogeneity] to be a simple con~ sequence of the law of imitation. But it is rather a leveling analogous to that which is produced between liquid masses put into communication. The partitions which separate the various cells of social life, being less thick, are more often broken through . ... Territorial divisions are thus Jess and less grounded in the nature of things, and, consequently,lose their significance. We can almost say that a people is as much more advanced as territorial divisions are more superficial.' The Division of Labor in Society (New York: 1964), p. 187. 2 This is the classical definition of acculturation from Robert Redfield et a/., 'Outline for the study of acculturation,' American Anthropologist, 38, 1 (1936). Since then there have been attempts to specify the types of situations in which contact lessens intergroup conflict. See Gordon W. Allport, The Nature ofPrejudice (Cambridge, Mass.: 1954); Robin M. Williams, Strangers Next Door (New York: 1964); and Thomas F. Pettigrew, •Racially separate or together?,' Journal

of Social Issues, 25, I (1969).

mobilization. 1 The social mobilization perspective, as well, assumes

that the initiation of cultural contact between collectivities is generally beneficent. But interaction oer se is seen to be an insufficient con~ition for the realization ofn~i()_ll_al cannot satisfact()~jly be explained lzy reference to its isolationfrom ~~ thenaHonaleconomy. In effect, peripheral economic development has occurred more slowly than the theory would predict. This has led to analyses which tend to blame peripheral economic sluggishness on the oppressive traditional culture which is maintained.• But this points to the second problem: why is traditional culture so;). enduring in the periphery despite this substantial interaction with ' the core? Clearly the existence of a distinctive culture in the

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Erik Allardt, 'A Theory of Solidarity and Legitimacy Conflicts/ in E. Allardt andY. Littunen, eds, op. cit. 2 Talcott Parsons, Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives (Englewood Cliffs: 1966), pp. 22-3. This general position has long been held, despite its evident empirical inadequacy. Thus, Max Weber goes to some length to discredit it with respect to the Indian caste system: 'One might believe, for instance, that the ritual caste antagonisms had made impossible the development of 'large-scale enterprises' with a division of labor in the same workshop and might consider this to be decisive. But such is not the case. The law of caste has proved just as elastic in the face of the necessities of the concentration of labor in workshops as it did in the face of a need for concentration of labor and service in the noble household.' Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London: 1948), p. 412.

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For a survey, see John Frie~mann and William Alonso, eds, Regional

Development and Planning (Cambridge, Mass.: 1964). 2

M. Tachi offers an example in 'Regional income disparity and internal migration of population in Japan.' Economic Development and Cultural Change,

12, 2 (1964), pp. 186-204. 'For example, see Werner Baer, 'Regional inequality and economic growth in Brazil,' Economic Development and Cultural Change, 12, 3 (1964); J. R. Lasuen. 'Regional income inequalities and the proble~s of growth in Spain,' Regional Science Association: Papers, no. 8; and J. F. R1egelhaupt and Shepard Forman, 'Bodo was never Brazilian: economic integration and rural development among a contemporary peasantry,' Journ'!J of Economic History 30, 1 (1970), pp. _100--16. If the economic isolation of peripheral groups cannot be demonstrated m these societies, then in industrial societies such groups are, a fortiori, fully incorporated into the national economy. 4 Edward C.Banfield, The Mora/Basis ofa Backward Society (New York: 1958).

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r THE PROBLEM

periphery cannot be taken as a given. The probability of successful acculturation, leading to the cultural homogenization of the two groups, should increase progressively with time. Here as well the diffusion theories present an overly optimistic assessment. AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL: THE PERIPHERY AS AN INTERNAL COLONY

Common to both the structural and cultural diffusion theories is a unilateral conception of social and economic development. This type of development, as indicated by such measures as labor diversification indices and urbanization statistics, is assumed to spread from one locality to another though the mechanism of this diffusion is somewhat mysterious. However, an important distinction can be made between development which occurs as a result of factors endogenous society and that which is the result of basically ogenous orces. The _sec_<mQJyp~_,?f development~that usually associ · · ceFtain-sectors of Third .World societiesarose out of what Georges Balandier 1 has termed the. 'colonial ·situation.: Typically this involves domination by a 'racially' and , ,s culturally different foreign conquering group, imposed in the name of a dogmatically asserted racial, ethnic, or cultural superiority, on a \ materially inferior indigenous people. There is contact between the different cultures. The dominated society is condemned to an instrumental role by the metropolis. Finally, there is a recourse not only to force, to maintain political stability, but also to a complex of racial or cultural stereotypes, to legitimate metropolitan superordination. The pattern of development characterizing the colonial situation is markedly different in these respects from that which emerged frol11 endogenous development in Western Europe and Japan. ~ colonial development produces a..J(_ultural division oflabor: a system o~on ~~~ultural distinction~ __llre superi~~-d uponClass lines. High statusocCiipations tend io be· re•rJ- served f~eofnrefi'opolitan culture; while those of indigenous •f culture cluster at the bottom of the stratification system. The ecological pattern of development differs in the colonial situation, leading to what has been termed economic and social dualism. Since the colon;(sn>leis designed to be inirt~~~entai, -development tends to be complementary to that of the metropolis. Thii. colonial economy often specializes in the production of a narrow range of primary

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Georges Balandier, Sociologie actuelle de I' Afrique noire (Paris: 1963). ; '

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TOWARDS A THEORY OF ETHNIC CHANGE

imlnodit:ies or raw materials for export. Whereas cities arose to central place functions in societies having had endogenous development, the ecological distribution of cities looks very different in colonies, where they serve as way stations in the trade between : ~ colonial hinterlands and metropolitan ports. Hence cities tend to be located on coasts with direct access to the metropolis.' Similarly, transportation systems arise not to spur colonial development-they are seldom built to interconnect the various regions of the colonybut to facilitate the movement of commodities from the hinterland to the coastal cities. Thus, the cultural contact engendered in the colonial-situation-did not lead to a type of social and economic deY.el<m!ll!
less and none of the governments succeeded fully in its program o1 Hence Christaller's theory predicting the location of cities in central places (cf. Edward Ullman, 'A theory of location for cities,' American Journal of Sociology, 46, 3 (1941), pp. 853-64), and devised from South German data, seems to apply best in Western Europe, or exactly that area which had endogenous development. After the sixteenth century, Eastern Europe experienced extensive refeudalization and came to serve as a major source of primary products for the Western maritime states. Hence these Eastern European societies exhibit many of the characteristics of an area of exogenous development. It has been claimed that this is a significant distinction in the development of feudalism as well. 'A rough general distinction may be drawn between feudalism (in an institutional sense) growing up .. naturally" from below, or planted from above. West European feudalism seems to belong in the main to the former type. Peering with due caution into the mists of time and expert witness, one may associate this fact with the long Dark-Age struggle of its region of origin against the pressure of worse barbarism from outside.' V. G. Kiernan, 'State and nation in Western Europe; Past andPre.fent, 31 (1965), pp. 21-2. The defensive nature of Western European feudalism. for Kiernan, led to conditions favoring social solidarity. 2 Andre Gunder Frank, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America

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(New York: 1969).

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Kiernan, op. cit., p. 33.

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THE PROBLEM

unification. England strove in vain to absorb Scotland; Spain was only

bnefly able .to .ab~orb a reluctant Portugal. Frontiers thus surviving helped by mutualirntatwn to generate a corporate sentiment on both sides. By

the seventeenth century an Englishman who did not look down on a

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jments were the result of the same social forces in these states, among

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IT)lese--internal campaigns were not in any sense coincidental to !overse~s colonization. There-!sreasori to believe thaf both mo~e­ !which the search for new sources of foodstuffs may have been of !primary importance. Fernand Braude! has referred to this territorial :_expansion of the Western European states as a quest for 'internal

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Scotsman would have been only half an Englishman; a Scotsman who did not hate an Englishman would not have been a Scotsman at all.

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!Americas.' 1

This bears a striking resemblance to the description of interria colonialism which has emerged from consideration of the situation of Amerindian regions in several Latin American societies. Thi '),_~ conception fodeuseds obn pholitical confiict between core and peripheral If: groups as me tate y t e centra1government. Ft:om this perspective the_'b"_~~.:-v.a.rdn_:ss' o~ £':~£h~_!:~gr2_11P~.ca!l_ only be aggravated by a sys_temattc t,ncre~.s_e__t_l1_!_r'l!IJ~ GonZ~--::"Ineql!!!l!\!es;f