ABSTRACT
The concepts of status and role are peculiarly subject to conflicting definition, but the fact that the usefulness of a particular version in one analytic context does not carry over to all others is embarrassing only if we are inexplicit. The discussion deals first with the disqualifying effect of regularly opposed pure or non-hybrid statuses, then with the contradictions inherent in certain status combinations, and finally with a small number of successful cases. While it is arguable that efficiency cannot be the first criterion of success in an innovation process, it should be clear that the technician is bound to fight for it every inch of the way. From the theoretical point of view, it seems to the author's significant that, in the three successful cases cited, the innovator occupied both inside and outside statuses: each combined the prestige of rank outside-ness—in this context, of the white world—with the familiar involvement of a brother.
