Anthropology

225 Pages·2009·11.82 MB·English

This Journal is published in French under the title
Revue internationale des sciences sociales. Selections from it are also being brought
out regularly in Arabic and occasionally in Spanish and Portuguese
Topics
of recent issues:
Use of computers, documentation and the social sciences (vol. XXHI, no. 2)
Regional variations in nation-building (vol. XXIII, no. 3)
Dimensions of the racial situation (vol. XXIII, no. 4)
of forthcoming issues:
Youth and social change
The right to privacy
Professional performance in social science
3 CWBS Vff
international
social science
Journal
volume X X IV 1972
unesco, pans
international
Vol. XXIV, No. 1, 1972
social science
journal
Published quarterly by Unesco
Development studies
Editorial 7
Syed Hussein Alatas The captive mind in development studies 9
Rudolf Rezsoházy The concept of social time: its role in
development 26
Ignacy Sachs The logic of development 37
Disciplinary contributions
D. E. Apter and S. S. Mushi Political science 44
Georges Balandier Sociology 69
Cyril S. Belshaw Anthropology 80
Henri Collomb Social psychology in Africa: the psychia
trist's point of view 95
Alfred Sauvy Demography 111
Victor Volsky Economic geography 132
Continuing debate
Ali A. Mazrui Educational techniques and problems of
identity in plural societies 149
Professional and documentary services
New periodicals 169
Approaching international conferences 176
Announcements 184
World index of social science institutions 186
Documents and publications of the United
Nations and Specialized Agencies 187
Books received 202
Editor: Peter Lengyel
Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of Unesco.
Permission for the reproduction of articles appearing in this
Journal can be obtained from the Editor.
Correspondence arising from this Journal should be
addressed to : The Editor, International Social Science
Journal, Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75 Paris-7e.
Printed by Imprimerie Chaix-Desfosses, Paris
© Unesco 1972 Printed in France SHC.71/I.100/A
Development
studies
Editorial
Since 1954, when two successive issues on the subject appeared (Vol. VI,
No. 2, Factors of Economic Progress, and Vol. VI, No. 3, Economic Motivations
and Stimulations in Underdeveloped Countries) regular attention has been
paid in this Journal to developmental problems. Many issues, the principal
theme of which is not directly on the question, naturally also contain articles
dealing with this major problem. Of the more recent and immediately relevant
issues, however, the following may be listed: Vol. XI, No. 3, 1959, The Study
and Practice of Planning; Vol. XIV, No. 4, 1962, Economics of Education;
Vol. XV, No. 4, 1963, Sociology of Development in Latin America; Vol. XVI,
No. 2, 1964, Leadership and Economic Growth; Vol. XVI, No. 3,1964, Social
Aspects of African Resource Development; Vol. XVIII, No. 3, 1966, Science
and Technology as Development Factors; Vol. XX, No. 3, 1968, Motivational
Patterns for Modernization; and Vol. XXI, No. 2, 1969, Approaches to Rural
Problems. This number, therefore, continues the regular preoccupation with
the examination of developmental problems but is the first to examine criti
cally the actual study of these matters and the particular contributions of
different disciplines.
Two books of readings have also appeared. The first, Social Change
and Economic Development (Unesco, 1963; $4; £1; 13.50 F), with an intro
duction by Jean Meynaud, contains the complete texts of nineteen articles
drawn from Vol. IE, No. 4, 1951; Vol. IV, No. 2, 1952; Vol. V, No. 4, 1953;
Vol. VI, No. 2, 1954; and Vol. VI, No. 3, 1954. The second, Approaches to
the Science of Socio-economic Development (Unesco, 1971; $7.50; £2.25;
30 F) edited by Peter Lengyel was published recently. It is an integrated
attempt to set out the main components of the intellectual discussion on
the subject as conducted by twenty-one social scientists, drawing on articles
from this Journal, books and documents put out by Unesco, material from
other sources and original contributions.
7
The captive mind
Syed Hussein Alatas
in development studies
Some neglected problems and the
need for an autonomous social science
tradition in Asia
In The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science,
November 1966, appeared an article entitled 'The Professor Abroad'. The
author, Edward W. Weidner, himself a professor of political science, is an
experienced and well-qualified person to speak about the effect and function
of the American professors abroad. Some of his observations are of interest
to us. Discussing the problems of exchange arrangements he noted the follow
ing: (a) the American professor prefers his own American teaching methods;
(b) the American professor takes with him his own lecture, laboratory and
seminar notes, relying on them without a great deal of modification ; (c) many
of the course contents of American universities are not relevant to developing
areas; (d) propositions considered to have the force of universal laws are
often not applicable to the host country's social system; (e) from the view
point of less developed countries, research by American and other foreign
scholars has not been very satisfactory.
After reviewing the changes that have taken place in the last ten years,
Weidner made the following observation.
There is much that is new in the less-developed countries that alters the conditions
of American professors going abroad. The most important element of newness
is that in terms of university educational elites, a number of countries in a number
of disciplines and professions are no longer 'less developed' whatever the state of
their economies. Adaption to this fact is an immediate imperative for professors
and fund-providers from the United States.1
Though Weidner's discussion was centred around American scholars, his
observations apply to Asian scholars too. There is only a small minority
among Asian social scientists who feel the need to develop an autonomous
and creative social science tradition relevant to Asia as well as to the general
development of the social sciences. The great majority of them are merely
extending the use of the social sciences current in Europe and the United
1. E. W. Weidner, 'The Professor Abroad', The Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science (Philadelphia), Vol. 368, November 1966, p. 70.
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Int. Soc. Sei. /., Vol. XXTV, No. 1, 1972
Syed Hussein Alatas
States without the necessary adaptation which the very scientific process
itself, if present, would tend to call forth. There is here not only a cultural
lag in the domain of intellectual consciousness, but also an indication that
in the world of learning, Asian scholars are still under intellectual domination.
The pattern and effects of this domination can be easily traced; an under
standing of it is highly relevant to development planning, for in some instances
it has serious political implications. Whole nations have been subjected to
ill-conceived planning with serious consequences.1
In discussing development goals and their attainment, it is necessary
for us to discuss also from time to time the problem of the planners, both
the experts and the government leaders. Here I would like to focus attention
on the experts for there is not a single item in any development plan which
is free from the influence of the expert. We need a sociology of social scientists
in Asia. We have to subject their scientific thought and activity to an analysis
of the kind developed by the sociology of knowledge. We may start here
with the fact that the trend of thought amongst Asian social scientists can,
in reality be interpreted in terms of what economists call the demonstration
effect. Duesenberry, who first used the term with reference to consumer
behaviour, understood it as the increase of expenditure at the expense of
saving for what are believed to be high-quality goods, for the purpose of
maintaining self-esteem independent of the objective utility of the goods
acquired. The frequency and strength of the impulse to acquire superior
goods depend on the frequency of contact with such goods. Each contact
is a demonstration of the superiority of such goods, and a threat to the conti
nuation of the current consumption pattern.2
The demonstration effect is actually part of a more general tendency
called 'diffusion' by psychologists and social anthropologists. The demons
tration effect constitutes a part of this process. While economists have been
concerned with the tangible part of this process (the acquisition of goods),
sociologists and social anthropologists have also been concerned with the
acquisition of traits and attitudes. Furthermore, sociologists and social anthro
pologists have analysed the process at a more sophisticated level. Since the
theme of this inquiry is the demonstration effect in the social science thinking
of Asian scholars and planners, we shall substitute 'social science knowledge
and technique' for the term 'goods'. The main drive in the assimilation of
social science knowledge from the West is the belief in its utility and superio
rity. The assimilation of this knowledge and technique exhibits parallel traits
to those of the demonstration effect. They are (a) frequency of contact;
(b) weakening or breakdown of previous knowledge or habit; (c) prestige
1. As an instance, the application of the concept of capital-output ratio in planning the econo
mic development of Malaysia, as suggested by many Western economists, has led to false
conclusions and the neglect of certain regions, thereby increasing regional economic imba
lance. See Azhari Zahri, Aspect of Malaysia's Rural Development: The Planners' Approach Re
examined (Research Paper, Department of Malay Studies, University of Singapore); and his
Indonesia: Public Control and Economic Planning, Singapore, Malaysia Publishing House, 1969.
2. James S. Duesenberry, Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behaviour, p. 26-7,
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1949.
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The captive mind in development studies
attaching to the new knowledge; and (d) that it is not necessarily rational
and utilitarian.
There are many other parallel traits which can be fruitfully discussed.
Suffice it to say that the spread of social science knowledge in Asian countries,
because it takes the form of an uncritical demonstration effect, introduces
many defects and shortcomings. This situation should be corrected as soon
as possible. For methodological purposes I shall concentrate on the Western
experts since it is they who are the source of the demonstration effect: it is
what they sell that is being bought.
The literature on development planning in Asia and other developing
areas by a great number of Western scholars and those subjected to their
demonstration effect are often misleading because of the unreality of the
basic assumptions, misplaced abstraction, ignorance or misinterpretation of
data, and an erroneous conception of problems and their significance. Apart
from an enormous amount of descriptive and statistical information and
statements, many of which may be taken as platitudes, there is not sufficient
depth and utility in the result as a whole. Some Asian and Western scholars
have recognized the situation and stressed the need for an autonomous social
science tradition in Asia and other developing regions.1
The biggest problem at the moment is that more and more Asian scholars
of the demonstration effect type are being produced and diffused. An American
scholar discussing Myrdal's view offered the following observation.
Theoretical reconstruction pre-supposes a combination of competence and
lack of conventionality which are difficult to come by for students of economics
from underdeveloped countries, who earn their Ph.Ds. at one of the graduate schools
in a developed country. By the time he returns to his own country he has usually
completely accepted the prevailing conventional wisdom which he proceeds to trans
mit to succeeding generations of students. Like most social processes the transmis
sion of ideas and theories is subject to a kind of inertia or cumulative causation which
tends to make the process of teaching and learning move in the same direction as
the original impulse. The inevitable gap between theoretical structure and the
world of experience may thus be widened until the stage is set for the intellectual
discovery that traditional concepts and theories have lost their relevance. To some
extent the current disenchantment with the rate of economic development in many
countries is the result of the inadequacy of theoretical frameworks to diagnose the
nature of the problem and to prescribe appropriate course of action.2
An uncritical imitation pervades almost the whole of scientific intellectual
activity. All its major constituents such as problem-setting, analysis, abstraction,
generalization, conceptualization, description, explanation and interpretation,
1. See, among others: Gunnar Myrdal, Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions, p. 98-104,
London, Duckworth, 1959; C. Furtado, Development and Underdevelopment, p. v, Berkeley,
Calif., University of California Press, 1967; and Ralph Pieris, 'The Implantation of Sociology
in Asia', International Social Science Journal, Vol. XXI, No. 3, 1969. Other articles in this
issue are also relevant.
2. K. William Kapp, 'Economic Development in A New Perspective: Existential Minima and
Substantive Rationality', Kyklos, Vol. 18, 1965, p. 49.
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