ABSTRACT
In this chapter I wish to return to the problem that I raised in the introduction; that is, the difficulty in defining and discovering patterns of social change. The primary assumption underlying the descriptive dimension of this analysis has been that societies are not undifferentiated wholes and, as a consequence, the factors that influence persons to alter the manner in which they get things done will have an uneven effect on different aspects of society. Social change can be discovered by comparing different aspects of society over time to see whether these aspects have altered at different rates. In order to be able to analyse social change in this manner, social anthropologists need a descriptive framework which allows them to discriminate among different parts or spheres of a single social system.
