Diffusionists

Diffusionists were a school of thought in anthropology and archaeology prominent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They proposed that cultural traits, technologies, and ideas spread from one society to another through a process of diffusion. This meant that many similarities observed between different cultures were not due to independent invention but rather to borrowing and exchange.

A central tenet of diffusionism was the idea of culture centers or hearths from which innovations emerged and then radiated outwards. Early diffusionists often focused on identifying these centers and tracing the migratory paths of cultural elements. Key figures associated with this perspective include Edward Burnett Tylor and Grafton Elliot Smith. Tylor, in his work on the origins of culture, emphasized the spread of customs and beliefs. Elliot Smith, a more extreme proponent, argued for a single origin of civilization in ancient Egypt, from which all major cultural developments subsequently diffused across the globe.

Diffusionism was a reaction against earlier evolutionary theories that posited a universal, unilinear progression of societies from savagery to barbarism to civilization. Diffusionists argued that such progressions were often superficial and that independent invention of complex traits was rare. While diffusion undeniably plays a role in cultural change, the extreme versions of diffusionism were criticized for overemphasizing external influence and underestimating the capacity of societies for independent innovation. Modern anthropology acknowledges both diffusion and independent invention as crucial mechanisms of cultural development.