press, irwing- cultural broker

8/22/2019 PRESS, Irwing- Cultural Broker

1/13

Ambiguity and Innovation: Implicationsfor the Genesis of the Culture Broker

IRWIN PRESSUniversity of Notre DameEssential to the function of an innovator-particularly a group-straddling on e such as amarginal man or culture broker-is the manner in which others view him and th egenesis of his mandate to innovate. A n account of the genesis o f a culture broker in aYucatan peasant community suggests that ambiguity during the development of theinnovator role may allow novel behavior while retarding negative sanction. The casedescribed may help us understand the manner in which culture-straddling brokers ariseand receive permission to innovate.

HE CULTURE BROKER i s oneT mong many concepts utilized by socialscientists to explain the process of changeand the nature of its advocates. Most ac -counts of the innovator, however, tend totype him as o n e of only several categoriesof individual, as though most innovative sit-uations were somehow alike and exhibitedlimited personnel requirements. T hus Ad am s(1951), in criticizing the incompleteness ofLintons and Barnetts differing views of theinnovator, rests with suggesting both arecorrect. T he innovator can be either the pres-tigious, admired individual, or the malad-justed or frustrated, more o r less dependingupon w hether the culture is in time of stabil-ity or crisis. In either case, the innovatorsqualities ar e fa irly specific and his identifica-tion seemingly easy. Little leeway has beenleft for the situations in between stabilityand crisis, or for those instances whereinthe community is stable and the prestigedindividuals have established no precedentfo r innovation.Culture broker studies have tended totake a broader approach, yet are still newand few enough to lack a unified theory ofeither the broker or his mandate to inno-vate.The mandate (as utilized by Parsons1961:230) is the crux of a n y innovative sit-uation. Regardless of stability, gra dual tran-sition, moving equilibrium (Nadel1957:142, Nash 1966) or crisis, it stands to

Accepted for publication 27 May 1968.

reason that ij the acts of an innovator areaccepted, he must necessarily have someform of structural permission to innovate.Otherwise, he is likely to be viewed as de-viant or intrusive. Thus it may be that ofgreater importance than the mere identifica-tion of the innovator must be the identifica-tion of his mandate and its origin.

IT he genesis of permission has been ap-proached from the structural point of view

by Parsons and others. Parsons suggests thatstructured deviant behavior tendencies, whichare not successfully coped with by the con-trol mechanisms of the social system, con-stitute one of the principal sources of changein the structure of the social system [1951:321; italics mine].

Nadel pursues a similar point in agreeingthat fluid or badly defined roles may beuseful as outlets for change (1957:146). Hecontinues,Societies provide such roles in order to ac-commodate certain unpredictable personali-ties and, more important, in order to sanc-tion and utilize their irregular, unexpectedor revolutionary inspirations [1957: 146; italicsmine].

In yet a further final cause approach,innovation depends . . . on preventing . . .afreezing of the behavior of the system in oldpatterns. , . . n addition, the program of thesystem may contain specific instructions pre-venting the synthesis of all information intoold familiar patterns and explicitly support-

Cadwallader suggests that

205


2/13

206 American Anthropologist [71, 1969ing certain kinds and amounts of novel action[1959:156; italics mine].As suggested by Homans and Schneider(1955) and others, however, it is doubtful

that Society (capital S) lays premediatedplans either for its continuity or change. In-deed, if any such plan exists, a better casecan be offered for the purposeful structur-ing of conservatism and maintenance of thestatus quo. Permanent change more likelyarises where. the structure cannot readily ac-commodate innovation or a shift in behav-ior, and so itself shifts to re-create equilib-rium.

An intriguing approach is offered byFirth, who sees the genesis of change as firstorganizational-the product of individualsand idiosyncratic interpretation of normsand social situations-and only later s t r u orural, when behavioral reinterpretations havebecome the norm (1959: 342-346). If indi-vidual choice and behavior are major factorsin social change, and if it is unlikely thatsocial systems themselves anticipate and pro-vide for innovative personalities and theirassociated roles, some mechanism must existthat accommodates the rise of innovative be-havior while retarding negative sanction.

I1A tentative solution to tbis problem may

be seen in the concepts of marginal manand culture broker. A major difference be-tween the sociological and anthropologicalapproaches to marginality has been their dif-ferent foci. Park (1928), Stonequist(1937), Green (1947), and others have pri-marily concerned themselves with identi-fying the marginal man and analyzing thepersonal stress under which he operates. Lit-tle is said of the effect of the marginal maneither upon the parent or the host culture,aside from reaction .or sanction by thegroups involved and their further effectupon him.

T w i n takes much the same tack in hisshort biography of a .Guatemalan Indianwho adopted many Ladino behaviors(1945). In this instance, both classes viewedthe Indio as primarily Indio, yet one who

had adopted Ladino traits normally forbid-den to Zndios. Tumins account focusesonly upon the individuals personal difficul-ties, leaving open the potential effects hemay have upon the class system. Tumin alsoimplicitly raises yet leaves unanswered thequestion of the difference between marginal-ity and deviation. Newcomb defines themarginal man as one between two culturesor groups and having attributes of member-ship in each (1956:539). Just how manyor what types of attributes is left unclear. Itis difficult to conceptualize at which pointand with which particular attribute the trulymarginal man is created out of the merelydeviant.

Anthropological views of marginalityhave tended to focus upon the action of theindividual within, and his effect upon, thesystem. Wolf views the culture broker asan individual who is capable of operatingwithin both the community and nationalspheres (1956:1072). As such, he mustlearn to operate in an arena of continuouslychanging friendships and alliances, whichform and dissolve with the appearance ordisappearance of new economic or politicalopportunities (1956: 1073). The brokerlives on tension and attempts to serve bothlocal and national groups. He acts as a focusfor relating the local community-orientedindividuals to the nation-oriented(1956: 1075-1076). Though the broker isapparently a local community member,Wolf leaves unclear his primary identity(i.e., how others view him) and the extentto which he has assumed aspects of both so-cial systems.

In somewhat similar terms, Fallers exam-ines the modern bureaucrat-chief in Uganda(1955). The chief, in this case, is identifiedprimarily with the local community ratherthan the outside administration. In his pre-carious balancing of universalistic-bureau-cratic and personal-kin group expectations,the chief bears the brunt of conflictingvalues during a period of social transition.Because of the chiefs buffering action, thesociety, claims Fallers, has weathered radi-cal transformation without splitting into op-


3/13

PR ESS] Ambiguity and Innovation 207posed factions and without a serious show-down with the European innovators(1955:303).

To Geertz, the Javanese brokers primaryidentity is that of insider. He is a prestigiousreligious teacher and scholar, a focus ofconservative tradition and fo r this very rea-son sought by developing political parties aslocal spokesman or symbol. He h;ls the po-tential (if not already utilized) ability tosanctify certain outside (national ormodern) phenomen a an d make them pal-atable (1959:247). As is Fallers chief,Geertz Kijaji is uneasily searching for anidentity that can accommodate the expecta-tions of both great and little traditions(1959:248).Either as innovator or mediator, i t is ap-parent tha t the broker plays a unique role incertain change processes.2 One of the mostconsistent attributes of such brokers is anuneasy cultural or social identification,which appears to be highly instrumental tothe mobility and innovative behavior essen-tial to the role. Still to be clarified, however,is the nature of this uneasy identificationan d genesis of the brokers mandate to inno-vate or mediate. Given the potential utilityf o r chang e ( as m ediator, buffer, scapegoat,innovator, etc.) of a culture-or group-straddling individual, what is the processby which he circumvents traditional behav-ioral expectations and achieves mobility ordual identity i n the f ace of structura l rigidity(in-group solidarity, ethnocentrism, classbarriers, etc.)? This process must first pre-clude the individuals acts from beingviewed a s deviant. I t mu st establish the indi-viduals right to utilize (if not proselytize)outside items or ideas, while at the sametime allowing him to maintain an identity insome way acceptable or familiar to hisviewers.

I11The concept of role ambiguity as a fac-tor in culture change is not new. Parsonssuggests that the psychological importanceof

indefiniteness of expectations which derivesfrom the generality of norm s, lies in theelement of uncertainty which it introducesinto the orientation system. . . . It may alsoprovide loopholes for those whose motiva-tional pattern leans to non-conformity, inthat the very indefiniteness of expectationsmakes it impossible to draw a rigid line be-tween conformity and deviance, since this isa matter of interpretation [1951:270].

Shils and Parsons propose that where roleexpectations are very general, persons withdiverse sets of need-dispositions may be al-lowed to perform [a] role in accordancewith their spontaneous tendencies(1962:152).To Newcomb,

a situation is ambiguous [if] a person . . .does not know what kind of role behavior isexpected of him, or how his ow n role be-havior will be perceived by others. . . . Re-sponse to a n ambiguous situation is thereforeuncertain response; it may or may not con-form to what is expected by others, and itmay be perceived by them either in one wayor in another [1956:536].More specifically, Barnett suggests sub-stitution as one basis for innovation. Herean innovator (X) ubstitutes himself for an-other person ( A ) . Such a substitution in-volves Xs performing a n act associated withA , that previously has been alien to hisown behavior (1953 :230). Ben David uti-lizes the term role hybrid in reference tosuch substitution. In discussing the medicalinnovator, Ben David concludes that an

amalgam of the practitioner and researcherroles has been essential in all successful (ac-cepted) medical discoveries. The innova-tion is the result of an attempt to apply theusual means in Role A to achieve the goalsof Role B (1960:566).Wardwell views themarginal role as an

imperfectly institutionalized one, whichmeans that there is some ambiguity in thepattern of behavior legitimately expected ofa person filling the role, and that the socialsanctions attending the role tend to be in-consistently applied [1951/52:340].Focusing specifically upon the chiropractoras embodying such a marginal role, Ward-well maintains that the , . . profession pro-


4/13

208 American Anthropologist [71, 1969vides a channel of therapeutic innovation al-ternate to that of the medical profession(1952:346). From a broader point of view,Andrew Frank suggests that the degree towhich organizational roles are defined is im-portant for the extent of social change(1963:238). This is especially the case withboth under-defined and over-definedroles-which in the former instance allowsinnovation through the lack of precedentand clear expectation, and in the latterthrough the near impossibility of encum-bents knowing and satisfying all of the ex-pectations.

Implicitly or explicitly central to all ofthese discussions is the concept of role am-biguity as a phenomenon permitting widerlatitude of sanction-free behavior thanwould be possible to encumbents of clearand/or traditional roles. It must be madequite clear that we are not here directly con-cerned with innovator perceptions of ambi-guities within his own roles or with prob-lems of adjustment or mobility that an inno-vator or broker may experience. Certainly,perceptions (of self, others, and milieu) ofthe innovator contribute a major element tothe innovators ultimate presentation to oth-ers. These others, however, constitute thetarget of innovation. As such, our emphasisis upon their perception of the innovatorand the degree to which they-as potentialadopters-perceive with ambiguity the sta-tuses and behavior of the innovator.

Following is an example which, in a pre-liminary fashion, attempts to examine thegenesis of a culture broker. I t focuses uponthe operation of role ambiguity as a poten-tially major mechanism in the circumventionof traditional expectations.

IVHach Pech is a small community of some

two hundred peasant families in Yucatan,Mexico. With but several exceptions, alladult males make or have made milpa in theslash and burn manner. Maya has been thefirst language learned by all adults. Except-ing the school teacher, all village-born adults

dress in a mestizo fashion and speak ofthemselves as poor, Maya, and campesinos.Mestizo, here, means shoeless with poorlycut clothing for the males and the tradi-tional huipil (white, flower-embroideredshift) for the women. While nominallyCatholic, village males ensure the corn cropsthrough an annual round of Maya field-rit-ual. Hach Pech boasts a Maya priest(hmen) and two of the more famous curan-deros in Yucatan.

Of the several hundred adult males, onlynine are not full-time milperos. Four areshop keepers, two are honey-gang foremen,one a secretary in a nearby town, one a cur-andero-henequen grower, and one a schoolteacher. All but the teacher and wealthieststore owner still make milpa on occasion.Even the wealthiest of Hach Pechanos dressand speak no differently (in Maya) thantheir poorest neighbors.

Long politically dominated by the nearbycounty seat of Oxhol, Hach Pech has viewedconcerted action, political autonomy, and in-ternal innovation or leadership with disinter-est. Economic homogeneity and the conser-vatism of the towns wealthy have furthertended to minimize innovative behavior.Though taking the lead in acquisition ofphysical items such as autos and television,the wealthy tend to dress more conserva-tively than others. The towns rico speakslittle Spanish and two of the four wealthiestmen earn major portions of their income ascurers and Maya-ritual specialists. For manyyears the dominant political figure of Oxholhas nominated Hach Pech officials and ex-propriated the proceeds of Hach Pechs lu-crative annual fiesta. Each year the presi-dente would allot a small kick-back to theHach Pech mayor. Hach Pechanos disinter-estedly (and often with amusement) telltales of the corruption of past town officials.Their leadership is further involved little be-yond the adjudication of minor quarrels.Such was expected of leaders by both HachPechanos and outsiders. Though guardiaand fagina have long been typical of ruralYucatan, both forms of communal labor


5/13

PRESS] Ambiguity and lnnovation 209had become sporadic and voluntary in HachPech. Until fairly recently the town squarewould lie overgrown with weeds from oneAugust fiesta week until the next. The townhas no economic specialty of importance.There has been little immigration and vir-tually no emigration since the break-up ofthe nearby haciendas in the early decades ofthis century. For those within the town,Hach Pech has offered little alternative tobeing-or marrying-a mestizo milpero.Outsiders have referred to Hach Pech as aforgotten village, and within the munici-p i0 the town has been used as a pejorativelabel for anyone regarded as a hick: Hesfrom Hach Pech.On the other hand, the town has main-tained continuous contact with the outsidefor over four hundred years. It is situatedon a major paved highway. For fifty years anarrow-gauge railroad has linked i t withMerida, the Yucatec capital. There has beena school since the 1890s. The movie theaterbehind the largest store is over twenty-five

years old. Many villagers have radios (pow-ered by auto battery, as there is no electric-ity), sewing machines, bicycles, and enam-eled utensils. Girls regularly put up theirhair with plastic curlers, or travel five milesfor a permanent wave. All have been to thelarge center of Oxhol countless times and toMerida at least once or twice. In the adop-tion of these physical cultural items HachPech has felt itself to be modern.Twenty years ago, the town produced itsfirst professional-a teacher. Previously,the Hach Pech school had been directed bynon-Hach Pechanos, state or federal teach-ers who regretted their assignments andcommuted daily from the more civilizedtown of Oxhol. They returned to Oxholimmediately after the last class and neitherattempted nor were expected to innovate.One of these teachers had seen promise in

young Enrique Cetina. The boys father waswell off and had four other sons to helpwith milpa work. Furthermore, the state hadrecently opened a high school in Oxhol, andthe government a normal school some fifty

kilometers away. With the teachers impetus,Cetina went through both high and normalschools and completed several years of ap-prentice teaching. He petitioned the federalschool board for permission to teach in hishome town. He returned to Hach Pech somefifteen years ago, fired with the goals of theRevolution and pride in his unique statusamong villagers. He settled down in thethatched house of his father and married alocal girl.What villagers initially saw in Cetina wasan unprecedented combination of qualities.He was a teacher, and thus learned, the firstprofessional in the towns history. It waswith pride that Hach Pech addressed himfondly as Prof. He represented the federalgovernment. He spoke fluent, florid Spanishwith no tell-tale Maya inflection. He dressedconstantly as a Ladino (catrin in Yuca-tan), wore shoes and socks, and owned asuit and several ties. No other male in HachPech was a full-time catrin. Cetina wasworldly; he knew foreign customs and thenames of many foreign places. His wife pre-pared pancakes for an occasional breakfast.Like the doctor in Oxhol (though at nocost) he dispensed penicillin injections andmedicines. For a wage-earning villager heearned an unprecedented income. He talkedof betterment and change and could rattleoff the many heroes and goals of the Revo-lution.On the other hand, Cetina was still thesame boy who had once labored in thernilpa with his father and brothers. Indeed,on occasion, he would still help the familywith occasional harvest needs. He had nu-merous cousins and uncles in thevillage-all milperos and mestizos in dress.He still spoke a good Maya and knew theterms of address. His own father was one ofonly two conservative old men in HachPech who still wore the Indian apron, anitem of dress more common today in theisolated interior of Quintana Roo. His wife,too, was a native Hach Pechana of well-to-do conservative family. Cetina actually livedin Hach Pech as no other teacher had done


6/13

210 American Anthropologist [71, 1969before him. In sum, he was neither a famil-iar type of insider, nor the usual outsider.Cetinas initial reception by Hach Pechwas unanimously enthusiastic. School chil-dren reported to their parents that he knewas much as any other teacher-and probablymore. It was not long after his arrival thatCetina suggested the village reroof the ram-shackle schoolhouse. It was a novel, thoughnot unreasonable request considering thatthe school and its new teacher were still afocal point of village conversation. Parentsof school and postschool children volun-teered their labor. Shortly thereafter theteacher raised the necessity of latrines in theschool yard and stressed the need for sani-tary facilities handy to the younger grades.Again response was quick.Some months later, at a regular townmeeting called by the mayor, Cetina sug-gested that the town clean up and weed theplaza. As the annual fiesta was still monthsoff, he suggestion (unrelated to the school)was viewed as more novel than any preced-ing idea of the teacher. Several dozen villag-ers volunteered their labor. As both schooland plaza did look better following the com-munal labor, numbers also donated timewhen the teacher successfully applied forstate economic aid for construction of an-other school building and a schoolyardstage. He subsequently formed several com-mittees (Fathers of the Family, Mothersof the Family) whose function was, osten-sibly, the planning of school programs andapplication of pressure on parents who keptchildren out of school with frequency. How-ever, it was not long before these commit-tees began discussions concerning nonschoolprojects, the towns future, and the role vil-lagers could play in it.Up to this point the mayor, his clique ofcronies and several exmayors, and the ma-jority of townspeople viewed the teacher ina disinterested, though not negative manner.Though response to any one of the teachersprojects had never involved more than sev-eral dozens of villagers, t h i s in itself was in-novative and certainly no less of a responsethan ever greeted a sporadic faginal mainte-

nance project of past mayors. With the for-mation of the Fathers and Motherscommittees, however, the mayor and hisclose group of perhaps a half dozen beganto take another look at the teacher. The firstopen rupture occurred when Cetina, in amost surprising move, petitioned the stategovernment for the right of Hach Pech toretain the procedes of its own annual fiesta.The municipal president immediately madea formal accusation of sedition. The courtissue was decided in the teachers favor(The judge, claims Cetina, was my oldnormal school prof), which greatly im-pressed the townspeople. Cetina thenformed a Committee of Civic, Moral, andMaterial Betterment to guard and spend thesubstantial fiesta monies that constituted abonanza increment to town funds. Withthese funds, and with materials obtainedthrough further applications to the state, Ce-tina asked villagers to construct a cementbasketball court-dancefloor in a comer ofthe plaza. Shortly thereafter, he fomented aproject for modernizing the towns watersupply by providing a motorized pump forthe plaza well. Each such project was allo-cated to a special committee of volunteersthat appointed its own officers (with sugges-tion from the teacher). Funds were allo-cated by the powerful Betterment Commit-tee. More projects, now, were directed to-ward nonschool than school-orientedneeds. Far more open meetings were nowbeing called by Cetina than by the mayor.Though the notion of committees was in-novative and associated with larger, moremodern towns, few Hach Pechanos werecompletely sure that the currin teacher didnot have the right to introduce them. AsCetina, furthermore, did not occupy a roleof traditional distrust, there arose no con-sensus as to the legitimacy of his leadershipor motives. Some (a minority) tended toview him as operating within traditional lim-its of power, and these individuals consis-tently fostered or abetted rumors of how theteacher pocketed immense sums from hismany projects. Few in this group donatedlabor for Cetinas projects. Others embraced


7/13

PRESS] Ambiguity and Innovation 21 1this view (considering it a natural thing forthose in positions of leadership) yet tem-pered it with statements such as: So longas he gets improvements done, I dont careif he makes a little on the side. After all, histimes worth something. Still others refusedto accept any view but that of the teacher asa purely apolitical self-less, altruistic force,paving the way toward village fame, better-ment, and modernization. The mayor andhis clique, on the other hand, refused to le-gitimize Cetinas position of leadership bycomplaining of his abuse of it. Rather, theyviewed Cetina as an upstart, encroachingupon traditional duties of the mayors office,and a dishonest upstart in the bargain.As mayors traditionally called few publicmeetings, the mayor himself called but few.With increasing frequency, the maintenanceor repair that might have constituted a rea-son for mayoral action was anticipated bythe teacher who held his own meetings. Andwith increasing frequency, the mayor andhis closest cronies began to boycott meetingscalled by Cetina. Such assemblies soon be-came weekly occurrences, announced by thebell a t the village office.Through Cetinas influence, and duelargely to his example, his wifes youngerbrother went on to high and normal schoolsand, after several years of apprenticeship,returned to teach in the village school. Likehis older brother-in-law, the new teacherwas from a very conservative mestizo familyof means. He, too, had three strong brothersto help the father with milpa labor. The fa-ther had once been a wealthier man, and theprestige of having a professor as son wasnot the least of the factors that influencedhis decision.Gomez, the younger teacher, also com-bined a number of inside and outsidecharacteristics. He returned to Hach Pechwith a catrin wife from a larger town. It wasknown that she used a diaphragm and con-traceptive jelly so as not to have children.Gomez moved into a thatched hut in a cor-ner of his fathers large, plaza-fronting lot.Six years after he had returned to the vil-lage as its first local teacher, Cetina, who

had greatly impressed the Yucatec federalschool board, was appointed to a position onthe board in Merida. Town pride in Cetinawas great, and he himself is not slow to em-phasize the honor. I was the first profes-sional man Hach Pech ever produced-notanother teacher, engineer or what have youin all of its history. I did it. Several yearslater, Cetina was named to a high position inthe Federal school commission for SouthernMexico.Gomez assumed Cetinas position as headof the Hach Pech school, which nowboasted some five teachers-the rest beingcommuters from Oxhol. Gomez activelycontinued the innovative policies of his elderbrother-in-law. He formed a baseball teamthat soon became one of the top-rankedclubs in Yucatan. Eventually, it was signallyhonored by becoming the team of Yuca-tans major brewery with new uniformsbearing the name YUCATECO BEER. Theteam soon became a powerful opinionsource in Hach Pech and the nucleus of apolitically active group for nomination andsupport of teacher-approved candidates andvillage projects. Gomez broadened the baseof outside aid by applying to federal andprivate as well as state agencies. The motor-ized well was rennovated and pipes laid toextend water beyond the plaza. Latrineswere built on private lots. Streets were lev-eled; a Monument to the Republic raised;and a down-payment and application madefor town electrification. A new economicfocus appeared-irrigated citrus groves-asa direct result of Gomez application to thefederal government. Potable Water, Pro-electrification, Infancy Protection andother committees flourished. Gomez publi-cally stressed the necessity for honest elec-tions with more than one candidate. He de-nounced to government agencies, municipalauthorities, and state newspapers any villageor municipal leaders whom he thought orknew to be corrupt.Through both teachers example a num-ber of parents had begun to dress their chil-dren as catrins. Today, over two dozenyoungsters are dressed catrin, and eight are,


8/13

212 American Anthropologist [71, 1969or have been, enrolled in both high and nor-mal schools. Two presently teach in otherYucatec towns. These catrins have beendressed as such since the age of two orthree. The transformation ostensibly repre-sents a projection of new concepts ofachievement and life-style upon the youngergeneration. As there are no economic outletsfor catrins within the village (aside fromseveral stores and presently-filled positionsas teacher), such acts by parents furtherrepresent commitment to a new idea. A cat-rin child must inevitably emigrate fromHach Pech.

While most of the duties, rights and pre-requisites of traditional office have remainedessentially unchanged, a new hierarchy hasevolved that controls a body of largely un-precedented activities and expenditures. Thedegree of overlap between the two systemsis still unclear to the majority. Thus whilemayors rarely or never led the village in in-novative (rather than merely maintenance)projects, there is no overall concensus as towhether the motorized central water supply,basketball court, school amplification, elec-trification, and so on should not really havebeen under control of mayor and town trea-surer. Similarly, the treasurer had neverbeen responsible for fiesta procedes whileOxhol monopolized their distribution. Nowthat a vilIage committee controls these funds(which are considerably in excess ofamounts traditionally handled by town trea-surers), it is unclear as to whether the Bet-terment Committee is competing with thetreasurer. In point of fact, few in town canpresently name the elected treasurer, and theteacher maintains there is none.

It must be reiterated that participation incommittees and projects is far from univer-sal in the sense of village-wide cooperationin any single venture. On the contrary,highly pragmatic interests dictate the person-nel of any labor group-such as residenceon the street to be leveled, or proximity tothe latest extension of potable water tubing.At the same time, there is a growing core ofcooperators (in the teachers terms) who

can be seen participating in most projects,regardless of where or for what the workmay be. Villagers exhibit a growing pride inbeing Hach Pechanos. Outsiders reiteratethis new image by saying that Hach Pechwas or used to be a forgotten village. Thenumber of Oxhol boys come to court HachPech girls has risen in the past few years.Through Cetinas influence, the governor ofYucatan has twice visited Hach Pech, onceto inaugurate the Monument to the Re-public and once to open the new potablewater system. Both Yucatec newspapers cov-ered the event. No governor had trod thevillage square since the martyred FelipeCarrillo Puerto, some thirty years before.

When distinguished visitors come totown, the podium is always shared by mayorand teacher. The teachers speech is inevita-bly longer and more polished. Indeed, distin-guished visitors come to Hach Pech in thefirst place because the teacher-eitherGomez in the village or Cetina from his Me-rida base-invited them.

The result has been a new system-inpart distinct from, in part directly compet-ing with, the traditional political set-up. Theduties of the mayor are essentially un-changed. He is still the only authority onmatters of permits and misdemeanors. He isthe only available mediator and judge inminor tort cases. He is the official represen-tative of the town and only he is invited topolitical party caucuses in Oxhol. At thesame time, the village offices have stood stillwhile a new organization has flourished,leading new activities, for new reasons, withnew funds. The mayor himself was granteda perfunctory chairmanship of only onecommittee-For the Protection of In -fancy. As treasurer of the important Better-ment Committee, he wielded far morepower and funds than he did as mayor. In-deed, he was mayor only because the teach-er-controlled sports group campaigned in hisbehalf rather than in behalf of his opponent,a popular shaman-curer whom the teacherviewed as essentially corrupt.In the past several years, expectations of


9/13

PRESS] Ambiguity and Innovation 213the teachers behavior have become increas-ingly codified. He is for town bettermentin all spheres, for school attendance, forpublic participation in town affairs, for gen-erous donations to village projects, for ac-tive solicitation of government aid; againstoutside interference, against fund pocketingand graft in village office, against stinginess,against disinterest on the part of townwealthy, and against those who disagreewith him. His dress and personal habits havenow become familiar. His reactions to mostsuggestions and actions can be predicted.Village-wide gossip both lauds and, with in-creasing frequency, denounces him for suchassumed offenses as fund-pocketing and fa-voritism in selection of sections of the townfor betterment projects. In short, the teach-ers role cont?guration is becoming increas-ingly susceptible to the expectations accru-ing to most familiar power-centered roles.No one was surprised when Gomez re-cently indicated desire for the mayors of-fice. He was duly elected, thus completelyintegrating for the first time both old andnew systems. Simultaneously, the first for-mal complaint against either him or Cetinawas lodged in a major daily newspaper bythe exmayor and his clique. The teachersrole was now quite clear.

VThe preceding raises a number of ques-tions. Whether the present case represents

role ambiguity at all is, of course, a matterof interpretation. Informants can onlyvaguely recall emotions and perceptions of adecade past. The manner in which these re-ports and the description of the teacherscourse are organized clearly represents theideosyncratic and unobjective view of thewriter.If we begin with the assumption that theinitial teachers presentation to the village

was, indeed, ambiguous, how can this am-biguity be categorized and wherein is itslocus? Unanswered by either Barnett or BenDavid is the question of whether in all in-stances the mere combination of previously

exclusive roles will result automatically inambiguity. Where role ambiguity exists,what is its fate?In Hach Pech almost all adult males aremilperos and mestizos. It is felt that mestizoclothing is expendible and soilable-fit formilpa work. Catrin clothing is not felt to bemilpa wear and villagers know of no catrinswho make milpa. Associated with milpa andmestizo-ness are Maya language, pagan rit-ual, village residence, communal hunts, anda host of other behavioral and identificativeattributes. No Hach Pechano can success-fully change only his style of dress. He wouldbe labeled a catrin forzado (forced catrin)and derided. Here, the mere combination ofrole elements is not sufficient to produce un-clear expectations. The milpero is still amilpero-but a clearly deviant one.Most of an individuals roles are to someextent mutually dependent. No man is onlya mestizo or catrin. A milpero, while attend-ing to his crops or field ritual, does not nor-mally behave in such a manner as to contra-dict expectations of his roles as male, father,villager, Maya, and Catholic. The totalrange of expectations accruing to any indi-vidual is thus rooted in what might betermed his role configuration. Nadel sug-gests

The concept needed to bridge the gap be-tween society and the individual must , . .refer not to the concrete, unique humanbeings living an d acting at any point in time,but to individuals seen as bundles of qual-ities . . . that is, by the given, specifiedconstancies of behavior in accordance withwhich individuals must ac t [1957:21] .

Once this bundle or role configuration is%xed, alternative behavior in any singlerole or combination of roles is liable tomark the individual as deviant. In the caseof deviance, expectations do not conflict.Rather, behavior conflicts with the now es-tablished expectations. It is doubtfulwhether novel acts under the onus of devi-ance regularly lead to imitation and whole-sale acceptance. Alternatively, a reputa-tion (clear expectations of behavior) is an


10/13

214 American AnthropoZogist [71, 1969obligation to conform, and it permits littlefreedom in advocating novel ideas (Barnett1953:319).

For role ambiguity to arise, therefore, thefixation of a reputation must be forestalled,and the roles or role elements must be com-bined in such a manner as to preclude thecreation of a clearly deviant or conformistcontext. Here, the degree to which values orroles are dependent upon one another is ofcentral importance. While to be milpero inHach Pech is to be mestizo, one need not bea milpero. There are four storekeepers, twohoney-gang foremen, and a secretary whocommutes daily to an office in a nearbytown. Three of the four storekeepers andboth foremen have dressed most of theirchildren catrin, though they themselves aremestizo. The catrin children, it is expected,will either enter the parents non-milpaprofessions or go on to normal school asseveral have already done. These youngstersnever confronted the transition from mestizoto catrin in that their parents dressed themcatrin from birth-long before any eco-nomic role with numerous dependent sub-roles and behaviors had been established forthem. That the children are indeed fully ac-cepted as catrin for at least some purposes isillustrated by the fact that of seven long-since marriageable girls, only one has beensought as a marriage partner by Hach Pechmestizo boys. The secretary offers a differentsituation in that he must dress catrin for hisoffice job. Hach Pechanos recognize this. Heeases his own situation, however, by slippinginto mestizo dress upon his return fromwork. He has an above average educationand is known as the best typist in town. Heis socially smooth in the presence of im-portant visitors who tend to overawe manyvillagers. He is a close crony of the teacherand for two years has held the office of eji-da l representative.

Rather than the mere combination of dis-crete elements, the behavior of the secretaryand catrin children represents the unprece-dented, though not necessarily conflicting,combination of consistent behavioral bun-

dles-in this instance, (1) Hach Pech bornand resident, Maya speaking, mestizo fam-ily, etc.; and ( 2 ) nonmilpero, catrin dress-ing, above-average education, considerableoutside contacts, etc. As such, their behaviorrepresents a nascent ambiguous presentation.It follows that the greater the number ofmutually dependent roles fr o m each oftwo culturaVsocia1 configurations that anindividual exhibits, the more ambiguous ishis total configuration. The teacher is notonly a professional, a catrin, and a fluentspeaker of Spanish. In addition, he feedsand ministers to his children in a mannerdifferent from other villagers; his wife usesbirth-control pills; he eats foods and condi-ments associated with the larger town orcity; he sends weekly articles to the majorYucatec newspaper. On the other hand, hewas born a Hach Pechano; he speaks fluentMaya; his father and brothers are all metizomilperos; he lives in a thatched hut; manyof his mannerisms and aspects of speech aretypically Hach Pech. Rather than any singlerole being ambiguous, we must speak ofmuch of the teachers overall role configura-tion as ambiguous, lacking a clear-cut hier-archy of expectations. In that both insideand outside aspects of his behavior consistin numerous, dependent and logically consis-tent elements, few individual behaviors canbe interpreted by most viewers as clearlyspurious and thus indicative of deviancy.

Hymes model for linguistic meaning,with but the substitution of behavior forhis term, is highly suggestive:

A [behavior] can indicate a wide range ofmeanings, and a context can support a rangeof meanings. In a given case the [behavior]does no t so much positively name, as doesthe intersectionof the [behavior] and contexteliminates most, or all but one, of the pos-sible meanings [1964:97].In the case of catrin children, the secre-

tary, and the first teacher in particular, thecoexistence of several contexts prevented theestablishment of clear expectations. The sec-retary, for example, can indulge in far moreadmittedly catrin activities without sanction


11/13

PRESS] Ambigrcity and Znnovation 215than can most mestizo villagers. The teachercan participate in almost any mestizo or cat-rin activity without sanction,

The question of how ambiguity can ariseis partially answered by the examples above.The catrin children who went infrequentlyor not at all to the milpa exhibited a combi-nation of behavioral elements since birth andthus precluded the establishment of immedi-ate traditional expectations. The secretaryon the other hand, is a part-time catrin who,in changing clothes as he changes his dailywork, manages to prevent the appearance ofextraneous behavior within the wrong con-text. The teachers situation, however, couldonly have arisen through a prolonged ab-sence and subsequent presentation upon re-turn (from normal school and apprenticeteaching) of a full-blown ambiguous roleconfiguration.As change itself may be viewed as pro-cess, so ambiguity is a dynamic phenome-non. It is doubtful whether any role configu-ration can remain ambiguous. Sooner orlater, its unique combination of elements be-comes commonplace and forms the basis fora new, and rigid, set of expectations (whichcan include innovation). This is what hasoccurred for the second teacher. His recentelection to the village mayors post merelyprovided the capstone that was presaged byseveral years of increasing criticism withinthe town. He has now become the culturebroker described by Wolf, with a mandateto innovate and expectations that he willboth represent the community to outside in-terests and represent the outside (Mexicannational culture; the school administration)within the community. Thus it may be thatambiguity, no less than the similarly ephem-eral charisma, is, in Webers terms,doomed to routinization (1961 ) .

The present paper postulates role ambi-guity not as absolutely essential to the bro-kers mandate, but rather as an importantmechanism in his achieving it. Prestige andoutright novelty of the potential broker arelogical additional factors, though necessarilyinsufficient in themselves. The teachers role

combined both prestige and elements of am-biguity. It may be argued that a prestigiousrole alone did not offer sufficient mandatefor teacher innovation. Teachers had beenoutsiders in the past, obviously disdainful ofvillage residence and minimally inclined orexpected to innovate. For that matter, pres-tige (whether economic, political, or char-ismatic) had long been negatively asso-ciated with village betterment in HachPech. Most scholars are well aware thatprestige in the small or closed society ismore often associated with conservatismthan with the mandate to innovate. Roleambiguity in itself is not, of course, tanta-mount to innovation. It need not be stressedthat regardless of the role configuration ofthe innovator, the innovation may be viewedas distasteful, threatening, or superfluous. Inthe case of Hach Pech, the initial innova-tions were school associated (and thus os-tensibly within the realm of teacher discre-tion) and involved the reestablishment ofdefunct or deteriorating yet previously fa-miliar forms of communal cooperation. Foranother thing, an ambiguous phenomenon isconducive to idiosyncratic perception andevaluation. As indicated by the long-stand-ing opposition of the towns mayors andtheir clique, certain elements of the ambi-guous presentation may be chosen as foci tothe exclusion of the full field of stimulLs

From the opposite point of view, bicul-turality in itself is not sufficient cause forthe engendering of ambiguity in the eyes ofothers. We are here taking bicultural tomean dual competence rather than the exhi-bition of a few behavioral elements of, orless than mastery in the language of, an-other culture. We must reiterate the assump-tion that insiders tend to view the acts ofclear outsiders as spurious, odd, novel, de-viant (a common ethnocentric response),etc.-but hardly as ambiguous. Ambiguitywill be largely precluded where the individ-ual (bicultural or not) acts in the clearcontextual capacity of one or the other cul-ture (as in the case of the secretary). Onthe other hand, role ambiguity m ay result


12/13

216 American Anthropologist [71, 1969(allowing always for idiosyncratic percep-tions by viewers-such as the mayors cliquein Hach Pech) if it became difficult or im-possible to ascertain the primary culturalidentity of the individual, the context inwhich he were acting, or the cultural afIini-ties of the acts themselves. At base is alwaysthe problem of identification of the acts andjudgement of the actors right (mandate) toutilize them.As the bicultural passes from one behav-ioral complex or role-set to another (fromoffice to cocktail party to religious ritual, forexample) it is possible that he is clearlyidentified at one time or place, and viewedambiguously at another. In his capacity asmale, hunter, or Catholic ritual participant,the Hach Pech teacher is viewed and treatedas Hach Pechano. In his capacity as catrindresser, husband of an outside catrin wife,and employee of a federal agency, he isviewed as an outsider. In his capacity asproject initiator and organizer of numerousnonschool activities his presentation to thevillagers is ambiguous. If labels must beused, he is in many respects bicultural andalso falls within the definition of marginal.Regardless of the heuristic label we applyto such individuals, however, the locus ofambiguity, lies ultimately, in the eye of thebeholder.As all or most innovation involves a de-parture from tradition and accepted norms,the present approach raises, in a preliminaryfashion, the possibility that role ambiguitylikely plays at some point an importantfunction in circumventing potential failureor negative sanction in any innovative situa-tion. It might be suggested that the moreambiguous the role configuration of a poten-tial innovator, the more widespread theidiosyncratic perceptions of his roles andtheir functions. Thus an ambiguous roleconfiguration could possibly accommodate anumber of diverse perceptions (derivedfrom an array of individual needs and anxi-eties) and result in a widespread manifestacceptance of the innovators behavior

where concensus might otherwise be impos-sible to achieve. If objects or values mayalso exhibit degrees of ambiguity to thosewho attempt to perceive them, ambiguitymight prove a useful concept in the explana-tion of many accdturative processes.While ambiguity is not a new conceptwithin the social sciences, it is hardly ade-quately codified and has been all but over-looked as a potential theoretical tool. Muchempirical work is still needed to clarify boththe concept and its relation to potential in-novation. As ambiguity may arise mostreadily where expectations of the variousconfigurational elements (such as insiderand outsider) are known and well codi-fied, it is suggested that ambiguity as an in-novative mechanism may be more successfulin just those communities wherein tradi-tional expectations of insiders and outsidersare most rigid.

NOTESThis is a much revised version of a paperpresented at the 25th Congress of the Society

for Applied Anthropology in May 1966. Fieldwork in Hach Pech, Yucatan, was conductedover 13 months of 1963/64. Special thanks toFred L. Strodtbeck, the Yucatan Field Projectand the Ford Foundation for financial assis-tance. Thanks also to Arthur Rubel for com-ment and criticism. Final form of this paperis entirely my responsibility.The term culture broker is in itself am-biguous, as it is unclear as to exactly how muchinside-outside mobility is necessary for an in-dividual to be so labeled, whether anyone whointroduces outside items can be viewed as abroker.

*Frenkel-Brunswik, among others, has dis-cussed the relationship between authoritarianpersonalities and intolerance for ambiguity. Shesuggests that the clinging to the familiar andprecise can go hand in hand with the ignoringof most of the remaining aspects of the stimulusconfiguration (1949: 141).REFERENCES CITED

ADAMS, r c w N.BARNETT,OMEX .

1951 Personnel in culture change: a testof a hypothesis. Social Forces 30: 185-189.1953 Innovation: the basis of culturalchange. New York: McGraw-Hill.


13/13

PRESS] Ambiguity and Innovation 217BEN DAVID, JO SE PH1960 Roles and innovations in medicine.American Journal of Sociology 65:557-568.

1959 Th e cybernetic analysis of change incomplex social organizations. AmericanJournal of Sociology 65 : 154-157.1955 The predicament of the modern Afri-can chief. American Anthropologist 57:290-305.FIRTH,RAYMOND1959 Social change in Tikopia. London:George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.FRAN K, NDREW1963 Administrative role definition and

social change. Human Organization 22:1949 Intolerance of ambiguity as an emo-tional & perceptual personality variable.Journal of Personality 18:108-143.

The Javanese Kijaji: the changing roleof a culture broker. Comparative Studiesin Society and History 2:228-249.1947 A re-exam ination of the marginal man

concept. Social Forces 26:167-171.Marriage, authority and final cause.Glencoe: T he Fre e Press.1964 A perspective for linguistic anthro-pology. In Horizons of anthropology. SolTax, ed. Chicago: Aldine.1957 T he theory of social structure. New

CADWALLADER,ERVYNL.

FALLERS, LOYD

238-242.FRENKEL-BRUNSWIK,LSE

GEERTZ, LIFFORD1959GREEN, . W.HOMANS, . C., AND D. M. SCHNEIDER1955HYMES,DELL

NADEL,S. F.York: The Free Press.

NASH, UNE1966 Social resources of a Latin Americanpeasantry: the case of a Maya Indiancommunity. Social and Economic Studies15~353-367.NEWCOMB,HEODORE.1956 Social psychology. New York: TheDryden Press.

1928 Human migration and the marginalman. American Journal of Sociology 33:1951 The social system. Glencoe: The FreePress.1961 Some considerations on the theory ofsocial change. Rural Sociology 26:219-

239

PARK, R OBERT .881-893.PARSONS,ALCOTT

PARSONS, TALCOIT,ND E. SHILLS, eds.1962 Toward a general theory of action.1937 The marginal man. New York:1945 Some fragments from the life historyof a marginal man. Character and Per-sonality 13:261-295.1951/52 A marginal professional role: thechiropractor. Social Forces 30: 339-348.1961 The routinization of charisma. I nTheories of society 2: 1297-1304. TalcottParsons, E. Shills, et al., eds. Glencoe:The Free Press.1956 Aspects of group relations in a com-plex society: Mexico. Amencan Anthro-

New York: Harper & Row.Scribner.

STONEQUIST,VERETTV.TUMIN, ELVIN

WARDW ELL, ALTER.WEBER,MAX

WOLF, ERICpologist 58 : 1005-1078.

press, irwing- cultural broker

Documents