Definition

A Cultural invention is any innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

 developed by people that is not of a physical

Physical property

A physical property is any property that is measurable whose value describes a physical system's state. The changes in the physical properties of a system can be used to describe its transformations ....

 construct. Cultural inventions include sets of behaviour adopted by groups

Group dynamics

Group dynamics refers to a system of behaviors and psychological processes that occur within a social group , or between social groups...

 of people

People

People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...

. They are perpetuated by being passed on to others within the group or outside it. They are also passed on to future groups and generations. Sources of cultural invention can either come from outside a specific group or from within that group. Allan Hanson, a postmodern

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

 anthropologist, believed that the analytical purpose of studying cultural inventions was not to uncover which portions of a culture's belief systems are invented, but rather to study how cultural inventions become accepted as authentic within groups. This notion has been met with criticism from within the anthropological community as well as from outside sources, and has been referred to as both politically revisionist and anti-native. The fear is that viewing cultural invention as a process which leads to something authentic and widely accepted may undermine indigenous people's traditions in addition to questioning the authority they have over their own culture.

Examples

Examples of areas where cultural inventions may take place include:

• Language
  Language
  Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
  
  s
• Legal systems
  Legal systems of the world
  The legal systems of the world today are generally based on one of three basic systems: civil law, common law, and religious law – or combinations of these...
  
  
• Political system
  Political system
  A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...
  
  s
• Scientific method
  Scientific method
  Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
  
  
• Sport
  Sport
  A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
  
  s
  
• Belief systems
  

Case Study: The Maori of New Zealand

Allan Hanson proposed that several aspects of Maori culture had been invented by European scholars who were accustomed to analytical frameworks focused on long-distance migration and diffusion. Because of this, he believed that European scholars constructed the notion that a "Great Fleet" headed by a man named Kupe from a neighboring island was responsible for the initial discovery and peopling of New Zealand. Although Maori ancestors most likely did arrive in canoes coming from nearby islands, Hanson believed that the account of the Great Fleet was created in order to simplify various Maori traditions into a single tradition. Additionally, in order to make the Maoris seem more elevated in European eyes, scholars may have invented a cult to a god named Io. Io was thought to be a supreme being that controlled all the other gods in the Maori pantheon. The story of Io creating the world is very similar to that of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, so similar that it is believed to be of European invention. Hanson asserted that these and other elements of Maori tradition were incorporated and taken to be true by the Maoris, and that they have been passed down through generations by way of oral tradition. According to Hanson, "Io and the Great Fleet have been incorporated into Maori lore and are passed down from elders to juniors in storytelling, oratory, and other Maori contexts."