Cold and hot cultures or options

Space travel is a hot institution of modern civilizations ; these are all sorted more or less near the hot pole

Hunter-gatherer peoples such as the African Hadza or the few isolated ethnic groups that still exist are most likely to correspond to the cold pole of the spectrum

Claude Levi-Strauss created the metaphorical image of cold and hot companies

In highly abstracting , cross- cultural models, either entire cultures or societies or individual cultural elements are classified as cold and hot cultures or cold and hot options in relation to the underlying worldviews and the willingness for cultural and social change . The range extends between the two (theoretical) extreme values ​​"cold" and "hot": the colder a society is on the scale , the more pronounced is its endeavor to preserve its traditional cultural characteristics as unchanged as possible - a culture is classified as the hotter it is , the greater their drive for profound and rapid modernization of society.

At the cold pole there are mainly ethnic groups and indigenous peoples who are free of domination and socially equal , who have no permanent rulers and hardly any pronounced hierarchies (compare also sociological theories of premodern society ). The hot pole, on the other hand, is most pronounced in modern , socially stratified industrial societies .

The model of cold and hot is used in structuralist studies of cultural psychology , ethnology (ethnology) and anthropology (human studies) as well as in a modified form in media studies .

Concept history

In 1962, in his work The Wild Thought , the French ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss suggested differentiating between cultures according to their ideological attitude towards cultural change. He had found that "primitive" and "nature-adapted" ethnic groups have complex social behavior systems in order to avoid any change in the tried and tested way of life as much as possible. In order to avoid the strongly derogatory terms used up until then for these peoples (primitive, savage, indigenous peoples ) , he proposed the term cold societies . Accordingly, he referred to modern civilizations as hot societies , which are characterized by progressive development in all areas of life.

While Lévi-Strauss' classification was based on a pure dichotomy of cultures, Jan Assmann and Mario Erdheim in particular later expanded it to a flowing spectrum between two poles.

Opposite cold and hot societies

cold	hot
Looking at societies that are as different as possible leads to the seemingly irreconcilable contrasts of cold and hot cultures

Basic characteristic of hot cultures: adaptation of nature to man (plowed field in the west of England, 2008)

Basic characteristic of cold cultures: human adaptation to nature ( Indians imitate buffalo , painting 1908)

Both “heat” and “cold” are actively created states of a culture or society that are maintained through a variety of mechanisms.

“Cold” societies have learned over millennia that man-made ( anthropogenic ) changes in their way of life harbor unpredictable risks. Accordingly, they strive to keep the cultural change in their society as low as possible and to adapt to the slow and constant cycles in nature. To this end, they have developed a multitude of rites , myths , traditions and constant values in order to preserve the stable processes of their everyday life largely unchanged. Lévi-Strauss described this processing of human history as “special wisdom ”, since it is not about an inability of supposedly primitive cultures, but about the conscious “freezing” of change in a special form of collective memory . Such cultures fundamentally distrust human ingenuity and innovation .

“Hot” societies, on the other hand, trust in human creativity and, with the help of increasingly accelerating progress , try to adapt nature more and more to their needs. Reflection replaces the rites, a chronological record of history replaces the myth, and modernization replaces the traditional tradition. The scientifically, technologically and economically oriented thinking becomes a meaningful guideline and the "motor" of this development.

According to Lévi-Strauss, this distinction must be understood impartially: the cold cultures are neither underdeveloped, nor do the hot cultures have a developmental advantage. The following overview distinguishes between the properties of cold and hot societies:

	Cold societies	Hot companies
Mission statement	Persistence : "persistent adherence" to the traditions	Progress : “greedy need” for cultural change
overriding values	Existence, unity, idealism, ethnically “obligatory” religion	Development, debate, materialism, knowledge
sociocultural characteristics	the greatest possible adaptation of the culture to the environment Traditional, established norms of action an established social concept homogeneous local small groups social equality little flexibility in new situations very stable without external influences	the greatest possible adaptation of the environment to the culture negotiated, changeable conventions various competing social concepts heterogeneous global mass society social inequality very high flexibility in new situations permanent danger of chaotic and unstable conditions
economy	Satisfying basic biological and cultural needs Adaptation of needs to the circumstances Subsistence farming manual working methods consistently very low economic output very slight division of labor extremely low energy consumption less than 2000–4000 kWh per person and year natural circular economy morally based sustainability	Satisfying constantly new needs and desires Adaptation of the circumstances to the needs global market economy, mass consumption manual, machine, automated working methods increasingly growing economic output extremely differentiated division of labor extremely high energy consumption Examples: Germany 47,500 kWh / p / a, USA 90,000 kWh / p / a predominantly linear economy consciously required sustainability
Knowledge of the individual	rather practical, detailed, accepted uncritically, most of it experienced myself, individually very similar level of knowledge extensive environmental knowledge	rather theoretical, often superficial, often questioned, most of it conveyed externally, individually very different level of knowledge fragmentary environmental knowledge
Memory and meaning	Recurring, regular, proven, cultural memory	Unique, special, new, writing history
Problem solving strategies	Rituals, individual skills, mutual help, belief, best practices	Reflection , material possibilities, technical aids, science, innovative methods
worldview	mythical and magical , holistic , close to nature, static History is condensed on a time level	scientific , specific , alienated from nature, dynamic History is recorded chronologically
Company forms	segmentary society , clan society, chieftainship, etc. a.	complex social structure ( dictatorship , monarchy , democracy, etc.)
Representative societies	nature-adapted, isolated indigenous people	Industrialized countries
Concepts before Lévi-Strauss	primitive, without writing, not industrialized, free from domination , without history, archaic	civilized, literate, industrialized, state-building , historical, modern

Smooth transitions between cold and hot

According to Jan Assmann , the ancient Egyptian high culture endeavored to preserve the state it had once achieved (cold)

. Since all cultures have both cooling and warming social institutions ( institutions ), the transitions between the poles are in reality fluid

Lévi-Strauss stated that cold cultures do not have to automatically develop into hot cultures. However, he assumed that a cultural change could only lead to “heating up” and “cooling down” would not be possible. The German cultural scientist Jan Assmann, however, showed that there are certainly examples of “cold civilizations”. The people of ancient Egypt and medieval Jews used hot options (such as writing, technology, rule) to keep their rather cold state and prevent further changes in their culture. Assmann concludes from this that the cultural change could also go back to the "cold".

Thus, the change cold societies constantly - in very long periods - and adjust accordingly continuously the content of their cultural memory on. However, they do not notice this as long as there are no rapid and serious changes due to external influences. Because they consider their knowledge to be eternal and transform historical content into timeless myths, they lack the possibility of comparing before and after.

The hot societies are completely different : their cultural memory is more of the type of a “ working memory ”, the existing knowledge is constantly being pushed back and forth and linked again and again.

The ethnologist Rüdiger Schott (1927–2012), who helped a differentiated view of the historical consciousness of the “writeless peoples” to break through, also used the idea of ​​cold and hot cultures in his considerations.

Cooling down and heating up institutions

The accolade: a cold rite of initiation , solemn confession to tradition and claim to power

Social inequality and oppression are hot options that can greatly accelerate change

The Swiss anthropologist and psychoanalyst Mario Erdheim has further differentiated the model and realized that it was in all societies, both "cooling" and "aufheizende" institutions ( institutions are) affecting the respective culture in one way or the other way. For example, churches and schools are cold institutions in an otherwise hot society. In modern civilizations, "cooling systems", such as the military, are used to maintain rule. Cold features in dictatorships are, for example, nationalist ideologies , gender inequality or fundamentalism - in democracies, however, for example, human rights or education.

Since curiosity, daring and willingness to experiment are clearly more pronounced in youth than in advanced age, the anthropologists see the potential for change for a "heating up" cultural change above all in adolescents. Cold societies - or cold institutions in hot societies - often try to suppress these ideas of youth, which are viewed as immature and risky, through initiations (such as manhood rituals, accolades, baptisms, confirmations, oaths), while hot cultures tend to dismantle such rituals .

Modern ethnological field research in connection with globalization has confirmed that the development from cold to hot cultures is not an inevitable fate and that hot cultures can cool down. But it has also shown that hot cultural elements have a dominant effect on cold cultures, so that in fact cultures usually heat up (see also transculture : influence of one culture on others). Here to traditional knowledge , cultural diversity and alternative lifestyles irretrievably lost. It is estimated that in the 21st century between 2000 and 6000 cultures are threatened with extinction by “global culture” (see also inculturation : bringing cultural elements into another culture). Dominance is not only to be understood technologically and does not have to express itself violently, usually the opposite is the case: Peoples who are attacked automatically differentiate themselves from the aggressors by consciously referring to their own culture and rejecting the foreign as evidenced by the history of the North American Indian Wars , for example . In peaceful encounters, however, members of cold communities regularly tend to voluntarily adopt elements of the apparently so obviously “more powerful” culture.

The competition of powerful and oppositely “polarized” institutions can result in great social tension. For example, the heating up tendencies of the market economy and globalization in societies that have a strong bond with the cooling institution of religion lead to socio-political conflicts. Often, the cold institution meets this development with a further, drastic cooling off: previously voluntarily accepted, informal norms suddenly become dogmatic constraints. Social imbalances, destructiveness and fanaticism are the result.

Comparable comparisons

“[…] We were content to leave things as the Great Spirit had made them. The whites are not satisfied and even change the course of the rivers if they don't like it. "

- Chief Joseph

The Anglo-French philosopher and environmentalist Edward Goldsmith (1928–2009) contrasted the chthonic (earthly) peoples of modern society. Today there is a tendency towards the "atomization" of all areas of life, as a separation between, for example, work and living, school and religion, or young and old, up to a single science ( reductionism ). In contrast, the most homogeneous community possible was the basis of all social relationships in the chthonic cultures.

The Indian political scientist and activist Vine Deloria (1933–2005) expressed it in a similar way to Jan Assmann, by distinguishing people “who live in nature” from those “who live in history”.

With Ecosystem people (ecosystem people ) and Biosphere people (biosphere people ) , the ecologist Raymond Dasmann introduced two terms at the end of the 1980s that are very similar to cold and hot cultures. The focus here is on the size of the sphere of influence of different ethnic groups in relation to the environment. Ecosystem people live within one or a few ecosystems and their survival depends entirely on the immediate environment. Dasmann includes subsistence hunters and gatherers , soil farmers and nomadic shepherds . Dasmann calls biosphere people all those people who, with the help of science, technology and the market economy, increasingly influence the entire global biosphere . Their goods often come from far away areas and most of them live in cities. Disturbances in individual ecosystems are often not noticed and have no noticeable effects on many people.

In 1976, the Hungarian-Austrian economist and social scientist Karl Polanyi distinguished between the fundamental economic principles of reciprocity and distribution among the so-called " primitive peoples " from the principles of sale and storage in the consumer society.

The Yupno people in Papua New Guinea offer an interesting comparison to the scientific concepts. For them, the continuum between “hot” and “cold” forms an essential axis of orientation in thinking: Every person has a certain amount of “vital energy” - which ideally is in a “cool” state. When someone is introverted or socially marginalized, they are in a "cold" state. The “hot” state, on the other hand, basically describes sick people, but also someone who is emotionally very excited.

See also

• Mythomotor skills (collective action-guiding effect of myths)
• Cultural theory (development of the theoretical foundations of cultural studies research)
• Traditional society (sociological theories: predecessor of modern society)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Dietmar Treichel, Claude-Hélène Mayer (ed.): Textbook culture. Teaching and learning materials to impart cultural skills. Waxmann, Münster a. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2531-6 , p. 36.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Arnold Groh: Cultural change through travel: factors, interdependencies, dominance effects. In: Christian Berkemeier (Ed.): Encounter and negotiation. Opportunities for a culture change through travel. Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6757-9 , p. 17.
3. ^ Marshall McLuhan : The Magical Channels. Understanding media. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden / Basel 1994, ISBN 3-364-00308-4 , p. 45 (first published in 1964).
4. ^ ^{A b} Claude Lévi-Strauss : The wild thinking. 4th edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1981, ISBN 3-518-07614-0 , p. 270.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Jan Assmann : Religion and cultural memory. Ten studies. 3. Edition. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56590-8 , p. 23 (first published 2000).
6. ^ Mario Erdheim : Psychoanalysis and unconsciousness in culture. Articles 1980–1987. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-518-28254-9 , pp. 331-344.
7. ^ Leslie White : The Science of Culture. A Study of Man and Civilization. Straus & Giroux, Farrar 1949, pp. 206-207.
8. ↑ Edward Goldsmith : The Way. An ecological manifesto. Bettendorf, Munich a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-88498-091-2 , pp. 16, 71-72, 86, 96-98, 144, 295, 382, ​​390-401 and 416-420.
9. ↑ Christof Forder: The ailing conqueror. In: taz.de . October 10, 2012, accessed August 29, 2014 (Book Review of Claude Lévi-Strauss: Anthropology in the Modern World ).
10. ↑ Anja von Hahn: Traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities between intellectual property rights and the public domain. Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law , Springer, Heidelberg a. a. 2004, ISBN 3-540-22319-3 , pp. 5-18 and 47-56.
11. ^ Arnold Groh: Globalization and Indigenous Identity. In: Psychopathology Africaine. Sciences sociales et psychiatrie en Afrique. Volume 33, Société de psychopathologie et d'hygiène mental de Dakar XXXIII, 2005-2006, pp. 33-48 (English).
12. ↑ Jürgen Paeger: Background information: A short history of human energy consumption. In: oekosystem-erde.de. Own website, 2006–2014, accessed on August 29, 2014.
13. ^ Dieter Haller : Dtv-Atlas Ethnologie . 2nd, completely revised and corrected edition. dtv, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-423-03259-9 , pp. 53, 177–179 and 196–209.
14. ^ Klaus F. Röhl : III. The development theories of Luhmann and Habermas. In: Rechtsssoziologie-online.de. University of Bochum, 2012, accessed on August 29, 2014.
15. ↑ ^{a b} Bernhard A. Baudler: End of Childhood: Initiation rites and their subjective interpretations under the influence of seniority and adult-centeredness. In: Werner Martin Egli, Uwe Krebs (ed.): Contributions to the ethnology of childhood. Educational and comparative cultural aspects (= studies on ethnopsychology and ethnopsychoanalysis. Volume 5). Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7247-5 , pp. 57-78.
16. ↑ Walter Hirschberg (Ed.): Dictionary of Ethnology. New edition, 2nd edition. Reimer, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-496-02650-2 , pp. 88 and 413.
17. ↑ Klemens Ludwig: Whisper to the rock. Herder, Freiburg a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-451-04195-2 , pp. 9-23.
18. ↑ Göran Burenhult (ed.): Illustrated history of mankind. Volume: Primitive people today. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0745-8 , pp. 213-226.
19. ↑ Hendrik Neubauer (Ed.): The Survivors. From native to world citizen. Tandem Verlag, Potsdam 2008, ISBN 978-3-8331-4627-5 , pp. 98–99 and 202–203.
20. ↑ Frank Baldus et al. a .: Models of thought. In search of the world of tomorrow. Nunatak, Wuppertal 2001, ISBN 3-935694-01-6 , pp. 279-293.
21. ^ ^{A b} Jan Assmann: The cultural memory - memory and political identity in early high cultures. 7th edition. Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-56844-2 , pp. 66, 68, 69-73 and 142 (first published in 1992; reading samples in the Google book search).
22. ↑ Michael Parmentier: Speech forms, catalogs, utilities - notes on the history of storage media and storage management. In: Émile. Journal for Educational Culture. Volume 3, Issue 1, 1990, pp. 17-28.
23. ^ ^{A b} Mario Erdheim: Psychoanalysis and unconsciousness in culture. Articles 1980–1987. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-518-28254-9 , pp. 298 and 331-344.
24. ↑ Mario Erdheim: "Hot" Societies and "Cold" Military. In: Kursbuch . No. 67, 1982, pp. 59-72.
25. ↑ Teri C. McLuhan (Ed.): … Like the breath of a buffalo in winter. 4th edition. Hoffman & Campe, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-455-08663-2 , p. 125 (first published 1979).
26. ↑ Edward Goldsmith: The Way. An ecological manifesto. Bettendorf, Munich a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-88498-091-2 , p. 327.
27. ↑ According to Klemens Ludwig : Whisper to the rock. The message of the indigenous people of our earth for the preservation of creation. Herder, Freiburg a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-451-04195-2 , p. 17.
28. ^ Raymond Dasmann: Toward a Biosphere Consciousness. The Ends of the Earth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988, p. 279.
29. ↑ Karl Polanyi : Reciprocity, Redistribution and Exchange. In: Ekkehart Schlicht (ed.): Introduction to distribution theory. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1976, ISBN 3-499-21088-6 , pp. 66-72.
30. ↑ Verena Keck: Between "hot" and "cold" - traditional medicine among the Yupno in Papua New Guinea . In: journal-ethnologie.de, Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt am Main 2008, accessed on April 21, 2015.