Latin American perspectives; Measurement of modernism

Latin American perspectives a program of comment and analysis about current Latin American problems and their historical setting. A commentator for these programs is Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois University. Here now is Dr. Gardner. If condition A is fuzzy and vague and if condition C is likewise uncertain and vague how precisely can one measure condition be the link between A and C. The theoretical question you ask not so in a new book entitled The measurement of modernism. A study of values in Brazil and Mexico authored by Joseph a call and published by the University of Texas press. The work before Professor call is that of measuring the movement of individuals from traditional

society into modern society and traditional society is sufficiently an abstraction a fuzzy and vague thing as is modern society. That one is left to wonder about the techniques and indeed the results that can come about when you focus your research upon the connecting link that lies between the traditional society and modern society. First a word about the characteristics usually employed to contrast traditional with modern society. The ones which follow seemed most common to the author call. First the division of labor. The most simple index of this characteristic is the proportion of the labor force engaged in agriculture. Traditional societies may have 70 to 80 percent

of the workers tilling the soil. Modern societies can get by with less than 10 percent on the farm. More subtle indices divide the non agricultural labor force into traditional sectors such as artisans priests lawyers and in modern sectors such as industrial workers clerks in bureaucracies and engineers. A second characteristic of modern society is the state of technology. A traditional society uses customary techniques of production handed down from father to son. A modern society uses sophisticated engineering based upon the latest fruits of worldwide scientific research. A third characteristic of modern society is the degree of urbanization. Since modern agricultural technology permits a

small proportion of the labor force to feed the remainder of the population using a low ratio of man to land most of the society becomes urban. The fourth characteristic of modern society is the economy. Traditional society is based on localized markets where much of the production is for a meager level of subsistence. Although a plantation type of crop or minerals may enter world markets. Modern society on the other hand is based on complex commercial markets unifying all parts of the nation. Per capita production and consumption are high. If the characteristic of modern society is the system of social stratification traditional society is deeply divided between landlords and peasants. Modern society has a range of status

is that reflects the range of positions in the division of labor. There are many and the distinctions between them are not so sharp. The distribution of prestige of income and of power becomes more equalitarian and the rate of mobility between straight-A increases. The sixth characteristic of modern society is education and communications. Traditional society is in the main illiterate. Although the tiny elite may have a high level of humanistic and legal scholarship modern society on the other hand is literate and there is widespread secondary education in deeds. So why does it that it blurs the distinction between elite and mass in the entire system of education moves toward the technical and pragmatic. The mass media cater to the bulk of the population knowing that primary of its primary

and secondary education and so shaping thought in new images that replace customary and traditional symbols. A seventh and last characteristic of modern society concerns values traditional values are compulsory in their force. Sacred in their tone and stable in their timelessness they call for fatalistic acceptance of the world as it is respect for those in authority and the submergence of the individual to the collective. Modern values are rational and secular permit choice and experiment. Glorify efficiency and change and stress individual responsibility. With such views as these in my professor called then proceeded to research in Brazil early in this decade followed by research in Mexico. A

bit later decided that the comparative study was the better way to approach the measurement of modernism. Note then this is a comparison between Mexico and Brazil not between Mexico and the United States or between Brazil and the United States though indeed the result of the comparison is primarily laid before an American audience. We look then at 14 value scales with fifty eight different questions put to the people that he queried in Brazil and in Mexico. He decided that he was going to work with men and men alone workers who were mature but who still had enough years of work prospect ahead of them that their capabilities their vision their hopes were not at the end of the line. And at the other hand they were not mere beginners. This indeed as a technique could be

open to question why CS all these men who may be said to be in middle age rather than looking at some in the 20s or 30s and others in their 60s along with those who were considered in their 40s but working with this interpretation this measurement as it was undertaken we find that such questions as this put to the Brazilians the Mexicans the son of a laboring man does not have a very good chance of rising into the Liberal question. There was agreement but. It was much more agreement in Brazil than in Mexico on this score. Now behind us of course is rather a number of hidden truths. One of which is the fact that there is a greater prospect for the son of the Mexican to get into a school

to become literate to have some of the basic tools that will help him do. But the question I have about that is rise toward the professional status. In other words the key to the answer to the question and one could anticipate the answer by simply looking to the rates of literacy in the two countries concerned. Another such question was this. Can you tell me the name of the president of the United States. Well I would remind you that our relations with Mexico are much closer much more intimate. They have on occasion been fraught with a greater amount of stress and friction than they have with Brazil. There is every reason for the person who is just a reversion with away from the United States to know of it and name the man who heads it. And it is the case of the man who is living four or 5000 miles away. And so it is not simply a matter of

literacy. It is not simply a matter of does one read the newspapers. It is also a simple matter of geographical placement. In other words there are social factors that are important in the socio ologist approach to his definition of modernism. But there are also geographic factors. There are sociological factors that so relate to something basic as literacy that can readily anticipate the answer before the question is even put to the audience. It's rather evident that on occasion the basic differences are not stressed sufficiently in the formulation of the study. For example the work habits of people can depend upon climate to a very great deal. The Mexicans who were interviewed were living in a temperate plateau setting. The Brazilians who were interviewed were living in a hot near tropical

subtropical setting. It is quite possible too that the climatic and geographic condition is in turn so related to the pattern of foods and the nature of diet that you can have some basic truths regarding capacity for work. Interest in doing work outlook concerning varieties of work again dependent upon the geographic setting the climatic condition the nature of the diet the person has also is noteworthy that in these two areas in Latin America that are chosen for comparative purposes one is Spanish in background and one is Portuguese. One can't help but wonder if the comparative could not have been made to hold up and be more reasonably sound. Had it been one Spanish area against another Spanish area. This is by way of saying that there were inherent and basic differences in the Spanish and

Portuguese cultures and these have translated themselves into attitudes into social structure into family relationships and to work attitudes and all else down through the years. Furthermore it's to be remembered that given the racial cultural backgrounds of the two areas Mexico and Brazil there is again more dissimilarity than similarity. Given the fact that the Indians of many many languages are important in Mexico where as the Indians are not important in the Brazilian life. And the blacks who were brought in from Africa have been so brought within the linguistic pattern as to be at one with the Portuguese descendants. Another important thing concerning the outlook of peoples and it was interesting that Brazilians wanted fewer children than Mexicans is to bear in mind the fact that Brazil has had a rampaging inflation for more than a decade now.

You can't imagine what it's going to cost to feed yourself Day After Tomorrow much less two children or four children. Meanwhile the Mexicans with stable currency with stable economic conditions have been able to plan better and longer. It is easier to plan for example for three children and their education in Mexico than it is to plan for a single child's education in Brazil. This has been important in the kind of outlook but nonetheless the measurement of modernism a study of values in Brazil and Mexico is an important contribution to this. Our awareness of man going down the road from the traditional to the modern. The book is by Joseph a call it is a publication of the University of Texas press. This was a Latin American perspectives with Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois University. Join us for our next program on Dr. Gardner We'll examine another aspect of life in Latin America Latin American perspectives is produced and recorded by station WFIU

Af-Am at Southern Illinois University and is distributed by the national educational radio network.