Marxism-Thaxis] Alan Carling's synopsis of *The Proofofthe Pudding: Reason and Value in Social Evolution* Charles Brown CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Feb 19 12:29:02 MST 2002
Marxism-Thaxis] Alan Carling's synopsis of *The Proofofthe Pudding: Reason and Value in Social Evolution* Charles Brown CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Feb 19 12:29:02 MST 2002 Previous message: [Marxism-Thaxis] Alan Carling's synopsis of *The Proof ofthe Pudding: Reason and Value in Social Evolution* Next message: [Marxism-Thaxis] Alan Carling's synopsis of *TheProofofthe Pudding: Reason and Value in Social Evolution* Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More on the anthropological school of thought that has delved into Carling's hypothesis at length. Note White's energy capture thesis which is based on an interpretation of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Charles Brown Neoevolutionism Leslie White began working with evolutionary theories in the 1930's. At the time, unilineal evolution was unpopular with anthropologists because generalizations were made based on little evidence. Also, unilineal evolution seemed to encourage racist ideas by equating evolution with progress. However, it was being observed that cultures did change, or evolve. White began studying evolution to attempt to understand why evolution in cultures occurs. Neoevolutionism is characterized by this attempt to find a mechanism for cultural change, which is typically environmental adaptations. White also believed that evolution is a unilineal process. However, he eliminated the use of racial terms and ranking of cultures. He also came up with a mechanism for evolution. He felt that cultures evolved as a result of their ability to capture and use more energy. His equation describing this is C=E × T. C stands for culture, E stands for energy and T stands for technology. White thought of societies as sociocultural systems and studied sociocultural change on a global scale, so his theories are called general evolution. Julian Steward felt that White was too broad in his theories. Steward instead focused on how individual cultures evolved and how environment affects culture. Because Steward emphasized the role environment plays, he became the first proponent of cultural ecology, and his ideas influenced later cultural materialists. He felt that similar environmental challenges resulted in similar cultural outcomes. He tested this theory by studying the evolution of the earliest agricultural societies. Steward felt that while it is true that all cultures evolve, they don't all necesarily evolve in the same way. He called his approach multilinear evolution, as opposed to Tyler and Morgan's unlineal evolution, and what he called White's universal evolution. Marshall Sahlins and Elman Service formed an evolutionary theory that unified White's and Steward's approaches to evolution. They defined two forms of evolution, specific evolution and general evolution. Specific evolution refers to specific societies and relates to Steward's approach. General evolution encapsulates White approach and refers to a general prograss of human society, in which higher forms, which capture more energy, arise from and surpass lower forms. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More on the anthropological school of thought that has delved into Carling's hypothesis at length. Note White's energy capture thesis which is based on an interpretation of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Charles Brown Neoevolutionism Leslie White began working with evolutionary theories in the 1930's. At the time, unilineal evolution was unpopular with anthropologists because generalizations were made based on little evidence. Also, unilineal evolution seemed to encourage racist ideas by equating evolution with progress. However, it was being observed that cultures did change, or evolve. White began studying evolution to attempt to understand why evolution in cultures occurs. Neoevolutionism is characterized by this attempt to find a mechanism for cultural change, which is typically environmental adaptations. White also believed that evolution is a unilineal process. However, he eliminated the use of racial terms and ranking of cultures. He also came up with a mechanism for evolution. He felt that cultures evolved as a result of their ability to capture and use more energy. His equation describing this is C=E × T. C stands for culture, E stands for energy and T stands for technology. White thought of societies as sociocultural systems and studied sociocultural change on a global scale, so his theories are called general evolution. Julian Steward felt that White was too broad in his theories. Steward instead focused on how individual cultures evolved and how environment affects culture. Because Steward emphasized the role environment plays, he became the first proponent of cultural ecology, and his ideas influenced later cultural materialists. He felt that similar environmental challenges resulted in similar cultural outcomes. He tested this theory by studying the evolution of the earliest agricultural societies. Steward felt that while it is true that all cultures evolve, they don't all necesarily evolve in the same way. He called his approach multilinear evolution, as opposed to Tyler and Morgan's unlineal evolution, and what he called White's universal evolution. Marshall Sahlins and Elman Service formed an evolutionary theory that unified White's and Steward's approaches to evolution. They defined two forms of evolution, specific evolution and general evolution. Specific evolution refers to specific societies and relates to Steward's approach. General evolution encapsulates White approach and refers to a general prograss of human society, in which higher forms, which capture more energy, arise from and surpass lower forms. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
