In 1956,Anthony F. C. Wallace published a paper called "Revitalization Movements"[1] to describe howcultures change themselves. A revitalization movement is a "deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture" (p. 265), and Wallace describes at length the processes by which a revitalization movement takes place.
Wallace' model 1956 describes the process of arevitalization movement. It is derived from studies of a Native American religious movement, The Code ofHandsome Lake, which may have led to the formation of theLonghouse Religion.
- I.Period of generally satisfactory adaptation to a group's social and natural environment.
- II.Period of increased individual stress. While the group as a whole is able to survive through its accustomed cultural behavior, changes in the social or natural environment frustrate efforts of many people to obtain normal satisfactions of their needs.
- III.Period of cultural distortion. Changes in the group's social or natural environment drastically reduce the capacity of accustomed cultural behavior to satisfy most persons' physical and emotional needs.
- IV.Period of revitalization: (1) reformulation of the cultural pattern; (2) its communication; (3) organization of a reformulated cultural pattern; (4) adaptation of the reformulated pattern to better meet the needs and preferences of the group; (5) cultural transformation; (6) routinization, when the adapted reformulated cultural pattern becomes the standard cultural behavior for the group.
- V.New period of generally satisfactory adaptation to the group's changed social and/or natural environment.[citation needed]
Wallace derived his theory from studies of so-called primitive peoples (preliterate and homogeneous), with particular attention to theIroquois revitalization movement led bySeneca religious leader andprophetHandsome Lake (1735-1815). Wallace believed that his revitalization model applies to movements as broad and complex as the rise ofChristianity,Islam,Buddhism, orWesleyan Methodism.
Revitalization is a part of social movements.
Scholars such as Vittorio Lanternari (1963), Peter Worsley (1968) and Duane Champagne (1988, 2005)[2] have developed and adapted Wallace's insights.
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