The World’s First Meritocracy Through the Lens of Institutions and Cultural Persistence

Can culture be a policy variable, and hence of use to change society? What can we infer from the existing datasets and methods in economics? How different it is from what social scientists define as culture? Drawing on evidence from migrants interviewed in the European Values Study 2008- 2010 we show evidence of cultural persistence on a large set of attitudes suggesting that culture is a relevant variable for policy to account for. We then offer its downsides and then move to the meaning of culture in other social sciences which allows for more general equilibrium effects, and we propose to focus instead on cultural identity change reflecting newly internalized cultural norms. We argue that on the basis of the existing evidence there is some scope for changing cultural social norms that shape the locus of value (meaningfulness) in a society, which can in induce forms of ‘social change’. However, unlike with social norms, core beliefs in a society are likely to be culturally persistent.

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Cultural Persistence or Experiential Adaptation?

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274801.013.27 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Thisted Dinesen ◽

Kim Mannemar Sønderskov

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Trust ◽

Future Research ◽

Cultural Trait ◽

Cultural Persistence

Studying social trust of immigrants and descendants of immigrants provides leverage for testing whether trust is a persistent cultural trait or, rather, a trait formed and updated by contemporary experiences. The analytical thrust comes from the fact that immigrants were born in (or, in the case of descendants, have ties with) one country, but now resides in another. If trust is a cultural trait, immigrants’ trust should continue to reflect trust in their ancestral country; whereas their trust should be aligned with trust of natives in their present country if it is shaped by experiential conditioning. In this chapter we first review studies using immigrants to study the roots of trust. Second, we critically discuss these previous studies and pinpoint a number of theoretical, methodological, and substantive shortcomings as well as avenues for addressing these in future research. Finally, we provide new empirical evidence on the roots of trust using a new dataset of immigrants from Sweden.

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Clio’s Lost Tribe: Public Policy History Since 1978

Governing America ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691150734.003.0003 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Julian E. Zelizer

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Public Policy ◽

Political Culture ◽

Historical Research ◽

University Professors ◽

Policy History ◽

The World ◽

History Of ◽

Policy Analysts ◽

Cultural Persistence

This chapter traces the history of U.S. public policy since 1978. It first considers the professional development of public historians before discussing the arguments that policy historians make regarding the value of their research to policymaking. In particular, it looks at the scholarship of university professors and describes five categories of historical research: Institutional and Cultural Persistence, Lost Alternatives, Historical Correctives, Political Culture, and Process Evolution. These categories of research offer work that is distinct from the emphasis of mainstream policy analysts and can provide guidance to policymakers without becoming advocates. The chapter situates recent research within these categories and explains their analytic value, arguing that historians should be speaking with greater authority in the world of governance so that policy history will not continue to be “Clio's lost tribe.”

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Cultural Persistence, Physical Retreat, 1820s–1860s

Indians in the United States and Canada ◽

10.2307/j.ctv3c0tkd.15 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 203-240

Keyword(s):

Cultural Persistence

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Mediating Mackinac: Métis Women’s Cultural Persistence in the Upper Great Lakes

Gender, Race and Religion in the Colonization of the Americas ◽

10.4324/9781315254579-21 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 137-146

Keyword(s):

Great Lakes ◽

Upper Great Lakes ◽

Cultural Persistence

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CHOCTAW WOMEN AND CULTURAL PERSISTENCE IN MISSISSIPPI

Negotiators of Change ◽

10.4324/9780203610220-9 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 121-140

Keyword(s):

Cultural Persistence

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Applied Anthropology and Cultural Persistence

Persistent Peoples ◽

10.2307/j.ctv1qwwjsk.13 ◽

1981 ◽

pp. 153-168

Author(s):

John van Willigen

Keyword(s):

Applied Anthropology ◽

Cultural Persistence

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Change and Continuity, Practice and Memory: Native American Persistence in Colonial New England

American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0002731600048575 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 74 (2) ◽

pp. 211-230 ◽

Cited By ~ 107

Author(s):

Stephen W. Silliman

Keyword(s):

Native American ◽

Native Americans ◽

Material Culture ◽

New England ◽

Cultural Change ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Community Members ◽

Cultural Persistence ◽

Colonial New England ◽

Eastern Pequot

The archaeological study of Native Americans during colonial periods in North America has centered largely on assessing the nature of cultural change and continuity through material culture. Although a valuable approach, it has been hindered by focusing too much on the dichotomies of change and continuity, rather than on their interrelationship, by relying on uncritical cultural categories of artifacts and by not recognizing the role of practice and memory in identity and cultural persistence. Ongoing archaeological research on the Eastern Pequot reservation in Connecticut, which was created in 1683 and has been inhabited continuously since then by Eastern Pequot community members, permits a different view of the nature of change and continuity. Three reservation sites spanning the period between ca. 1740 and 1840 accentuate the scale and temporality of social memory and the relationships between practice and materiality. Although the reservation sites show change when compared to the "precontact baseline," they show remarkable continuity during the reservation period. The resulting interpretation provides not only more grounded and appropriately scaled renderings of past cultural practices but also critical engagements with analytical categories that carry significant political weight well outside of archaeological circles.

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