Traditionalism in a Modern Setting: A Comparison of Anglo- and Mexican-American Value Orientations

Charles R . Chandler is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas Tech University. The research reported in this paper was funded by the Ethnic Studies Institute of Texas Tech. The author wishes to thank the Institute and the interviewers who worked on the project. Of the latter, a special thanks is due to Eligio Vega, Marian Meriwether, and Emily LaBeff. 0 NE OF THE MASTER THEMES in social science for the past two hundred years has been the transformation of individuals and societies from to modern. Although differing in terminology and emphasis, practically every major writer on human society has been concerned with this change, and most conceptualized the transition in terms of ideal typical dichotomization or at least a continuum between extreme societal forms or traits. Lerner (1968:387), in reviewing this body of work, presents one of the many lists that have been developed to define the meaning of modernity. Along with economic growth, public participation in the polity, and increments in mobility, Lerner includes diffusion of secular-rational norms and change in modal personality that equips individuals to function effectively in a modern social order (Lerner 1968:387). Concern with such cultural and psychological components of modernization has led to development of survey instruments for measuring (Kluckhohn 1951:409); Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck 1961; Kahl 1965, 1968) and individual modernity (Inkeles 1969; Inkeles and Smith 1974). A basic idea in these writings is that modern industrial-urbanbureaucratic social structure requires for its successful operation individuals who have internalized values, norms, and beliefs compatible with such a structure. It follows that individuals who adhere to traditional viewpoints will experience difficulties in understanding, adjusting to, or changing already established societal arrangements of the modern type. It is precisely in such a situation that, according to many writers, some segments of the Mexican-American population find themselves. Since Parsons (1951: 198-200) first described Spanish Americans as being characterized by particularistic-ascriptive orientations, as opposed to the universalistic-achievement pattern of the dominant Anglo Americans, controversy has continued over whether some of the difficulties encountered by Mexican and Spanish Americans are attributable to their adherence to value positions incongruent with modern society. Field studies conducted in Texas and New Mexico expanded upon Parson's comments and seemed to provide convincing evidence that, at least in come communities, Mexican and Spanish Americans clung to values characterized by fatalism, low achievement drives, past and present time perspectives, close integration with the extended family, and inability to operate effectively in secondary groups (see Romano 1960; Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck 1961; Madsen 1964; Rube1 1966). Anglos were described in opposite terms, their orientations being toward active mastery of the world, high achievement, future time, and weak commitments to family of orientation accompanied by trust in strangers and facility in secondary relations. The latter are some of the value orientations considered most appropriate to life in modern socie-