Hi Steve,

Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
His list may or may not be right, but what makes Ralph valuable is that he is at least willing to grapple with the idea that some intrinsic elements of some cultures may make them uncompetitive. Unfortunately, the concept of failed or flawed cultures is something academic simply is unwilling to grapple with, therefore there is little or no truly rigorous research on what the signs of failure are.
There has actually been a fair amount of research on it, it just isn't taught that much any more. The Malinowski book I mentioned in my last post is one example, and there have also been studies on failed cultures and failed attempts at cultural engineering.

I do agree with you that there hasn't been that much rigorous research on the issue recently, but that is partly because the underlying unilinear evolutionary assumptions are rejected now by most Anthropologists and Sociologists.

Marc