Sociocultural Evolution

Gerhard Lenski is not a sociologist who studied society in order to understand human behavior.
He took a very different path of viewing society and social structure. Lenski focused on the social
and cultural elements of society, maintaining an evolutionary perspective on macrosociology.
Macrosociology is the study of society as a whole, not just small segments of society. Lenski saw
human society as something of a process of change involving a society's level of innovation,
transmissions and technological advances. He describes this process of changing as sociocultural
evolution.

To quote Gerhard Lenski regarding sociocultural evolution, 'Societal survival has been largely a
function of a society's level of technological advance relative to the societies with which it has
been in competition.' This simply means that a society who uses its technology to further its
survival will do so over a society that remains standing still.

Technology and Society's Survival

In Lenski's view, it is a society's level of technology that is critical for its survival. Technology is
defined as 'information about how to use the material resources of a given society or culture to
meet human needs and satisfy human desires.' Lenski then viewed that through technology,
societies will evolve, change and survive. When looking at the technology of a society, Lenski
focused on information - the amount of information a society has and how it uses that information.
The more information (or knowledge) a society has, the more advanced it will become.

Types of Societies
He has broken the level of societies into five types:

1. Hunters and gatherers

2. Horticultural
3. Pastoral
4. Agricultural
5. Industrial

Since Lenski's description of societies in the 1960s, we have experienced also the post-industrial
and postmodern societies. Let's look at each of these societies.
In hunting and gathering societies, men typically hunt large game while women collect vegetation
Hunter-Gatherer Society
Hunter/gatherers have been here since the beginning of human life. They are nomadic and rely on
readily available food and fiber from nature. In almost all hunting and gathering societies, the
males hunt large game such as deer, elk, moose, or whatever else is available in the climate in
which they live, and females and children gather plant vegetation, berries and other small edible
items.
Horticultural societies began about 12,000 years ago. They are semi-sedentary (or semi-settled),
which means they do not move around as often as hunter/gatherers. Horticultural societies engage
in small-scale farming and the use of simple hand tools.

Pastoral societies began about 10,000 years ago. They are semi-sedentary, and their livelihood is
dependent upon the domestication of animals. Basically, they are animal-herders living off of the
resources readily available from their animals. They also do small-scale trading and selling with
other groups.

Agricultural societies started about 5,000 years ago. In agricultural societies, they have larger
populations of people, are sedentary (which means completely settled) and use improved
technology like fertilizer and irrigation systems for large-scale farming.

Industrial societies began with the Industrial Revolution between the 1780s and 1850s. The
production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery is the main focus
of this society. There is now a centralized workplace, economic interdependence, formal education
and complex social systems such as economic, political and government. It is during the Industrial
Revolution that we see people leaving the agricultural way of life for work in the factories.