Sociologie en de studie van acculturatieverschijnselen: convergentie van disciplines

Samenvatting

Sociology and the study of acculturation. This paper tries to show in which ways sociology can contribute to the study of acculturation .In the first section acculturation is briefly compared with other forms of social change. Two definitions of acculturation are distinguished, a limited and a more comprehensive one. Then some sociological concepts are discussed, which may be useful as analytical tools for the study of acculturation. Most prominent among them are Parsons’ „pattern variables”, and the concept of function, anomie, social role, and reference group. In the third ection some results of empirical studies notably on communication and the introduction of new farm methods, are summarized and their relevance for the study of acculturation is demonstrated. Finally, an attempt is made to integrate some of the sociological concepts discussed in section II with some of the research findings of section III.