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Cultural Ecology/Neo-Evolutionism. Change in the twentieth century. Anthropologists tried to keep a scientific study of society alive by patching the cracks that had begun to weaken Historical Particularism and Structural Functionalism.
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Cultural Ecology/Neo-Evolutionism Change in the twentieth century. Anthropologists tried to keep a scientific study of society alive by patching the cracks that had begun to weaken Historical Particularism and Structural Functionalism
Julian Steward and Leslie White developed a technological approach to cultural change, and both were influenced by Marxist thought. *Steward developed an ecological approach that focused on the adaptation of individual cultures to specific environmental factors.*White is best known for his formulation of a general evolutionist theory of culture.
George Peter Murdock was influential in resurrecting cross-cultural comparisons in anthropology. Murdock was interested in large scale cross-cultural analysis. He is best known for his creation of the Human Relations Area Files, or HRAF.
Steward, White and Murdock set the foundation for the formulation of ecological anthropology and cultural materialism, two of the most influential forms of anthropological analysis since the 1960’s.
Julian Steward (1902-1972) • Steward devoted most of his energy to the study of the environmental adaptation of specific societies. • He worked with the Shoshoni, the Pueblo, and the Carrier Indians in British Columbia. • He also devoted much energy to the study of parallel developmental sequences in the evolution of civilizations in the New and Old Worlds.
Steward proposed that cultures in similar environments would tend to follow the same developmental sequences and formulate similar responses to their environmental challenges.**He termed those cultural features most closely associated with subsistence practices the “cultural core.”
Steward stated that cultures that shared similar core features belonged to the sameculture type. Having identified these culture types, he compared and sorted them into a hierarchy arranged by complexity.
Steward’s original ranking was family, multifamily, and state-level societies; these categories were later refined by his followers into the now familiar classifications of band, tribe, chiefdom, and state.
Steward did not believe that cultures followed a single universal sequence of development. He proposed thatcultures could evolve in any number of distinct patterns depending on their environmental circumstances. He called his theory multilinear evolution to distinguish it from 19th century unilineal evolutionary theories.
The methodology Steward outlined for multilinear evolution involved a field of study he called cultural ecology; that is, the examination of the cultural adaptations formulated by human beings to meet the challenges posed by their environments.
Simply put, Julian Steward viewed culture as an evolutionary adaptation to the environment.
