age ofimperialism, when Western, European-based culture was forcefully, and
frequently violently, carried to most of the world’s land masses. But involuntary,
compulsory diffusion has also occurredinmanyothererasandbeenemployed
by many other cultures. Cultural diffusion may be inhibited by many factors. Sim-
ple distance may prevent the transfer of culture, as a result of the influence ofdis-
tance decay. Physical features, especially mountain ranges and large bodies of
water, historically blocked the movement of people, and therefore stood as barriers
to the exchange of elements of culture. Politicalboundariesfrequently stop diffu-
sion by prohibiting the passage of people and theircultural identity.Andof
course, some cultural ideas or practices may not diffuse simply because they are
rejected or ignored by other cultures.
There are two general types of diffusion.Expansion diffusionhappens when a
cultural component moves through a given population or society, gradually being
adopted by a larger number of people as the area of diffusion increases. Conceptu-
ally, this process works through acore and peripheryrelationship, with the point
of origin of the cultural component represented by the core, and the diffusion area
represented by the periphery. An example might be the diffusion of jazz music in
the United States in the 1920s. Jazz was a musical style that originated in New
Orleans in the first decades of the 20th century, and by the 1920s began spreading
to other major metropolitan locations, as players from New Orleans carried their
unique sound to new venues. One of the first cities outside the American South
to host a thriving jazz scene was Chicago, and by the end of the decade most big
cities in the United States featured numerous dance clubs playing jazz music. Jazz
itself was a syncretic product of cultural diffusion, as the music incorporated many
diverse elements, ranging from Negro spirituals to French Creole folk music. Jazz
also gave rise to still more new innovations in musical style, including swing
music, and ultimately the rock and hip hop music of today. These various kinds
of music all have their point of origin in the music halls of New Orleans.
Relocation diffusionoccurs when a group migrates to a new location and brings
a new aspect of culture with them that is adopted by those they settle among.
Religions and languages often spread in this fashion, and a good example is the
adoption of English in many parts of the world. As British settlers relocated to col-
onies in the 18th and 19th centuries, their language became the language of
administration and higher education, which compelled a sizable portion of the
people they controlled to learn English as a second language. The British Empire
was so far-flung that today the effect of this relocation diffusion is that English is
a truly globalized tongue, spoken as a first or second language from North
America to India, and from Nigeria to Singapore. The spread of Christianity
followed a similar pattern, except that the area of diffusion was much broader,80 Cultural Diffusion