Cultural continuity in values: Theoretical imperatives and empirical findings

There is supposed to be substantial consistency of values in a cultural group across historical time. This viewpoint is being supported by a host of arguments pointing to similarities between current cultural practices and ideas and those centuries and even millennia ago. First we will critically examine the strength of the evidence underlying the dominant view of primordiality of cultures in the domain of values. Then we will mention three kinds of evidence pointing to values as susceptible to rapid change: (1) Cultural constructions of values, especially those based in religion are often incompatible with cultural practices; (2) Generations differ in values, making cultural transmission of continuity a questionable proposition; (3) GDP per capita, an external antecedent, being the clearest antecedent of cross-cultural differences in values. In conclusion we will look at some consequences of our analysis for the way culture is being conceptualized in contemporary cross-cultural psychology.