The gap of time between the introduction of material culture and the adoption of it.

• A. Culture lag
• B. Diffusion
• C. Globalization
• D. Preindustrial societies

Answer: (A)

Culture lag describes the delay between the introduction of material culture and the slower adjustment of nonmaterial culture—like norms, laws, and values—that determines how people actually adopt and integrate new technologies or objects. Technology can advance quickly, but social practices and institutions often take longer to catch up, creating a gap between invention and widespread use. For example, cars emerged as a new technology, but it took years for traffic laws, road infrastructure, driver education, and driving etiquette to align with that change. The other terms describe different ideas: diffusion is about how innovations spread between groups, globalization concerns broad interconnectedness across the world, and preindustrial societies refer to a type of society rather than a process of adjustment.