ABSTRACT
There is probably no large culture area in the world in which Western-derived innovations are as difficult to introduce as in India. Besides the usual resistances to change that occur in rural areas world-wide, India presents several additional difficulties. The charge has been made that the methodological tools and theoretical models available to anthropologists are insufficiently precise to enable accurate prediction in the field of directed social and cultural change. The programs of directed change to be discussed below were all undertaken at Barpali Village Service, a small community development project operated by the American Friends Service Committee in the plains area of District Sambalpur, Orissa. During the early years of the project no reliable, economical pump appeared to be available, so project technicians attempted to organize entire village populations to decide upon and contribute labor and materials for the construction of open wells for common village use.
