ALICABA, JOHANNA O.

2019-08332

ANTHROPOLOGY 193

Final Paper

Each of the theories in the syllabus stirred debates and influenced future anthropologists.
Write a paper on the discussions around one theory (debates, contributions to the field,
etc.). Cite at least 3 sources (journal article, book, chapter, podcast, tweet, blog post, etc.).
The paper must be at least 1000 words long.

The Birth of Evolutionism

The development of culture in the earlier years was perceived by anthropology and other
social sciences fields, is something that generally evolves in a uniform and progressive manner.
Much of the evolutionists’ idea towards interpreting the development of culture in an
evolutionary pattern, stems from the success of Darwin’s theory of evolution—just like how all
species evolve into sophisticated beings throughout time, a culture’s progress from being simple
societies to transforming into complex states was deemed as similar. Scholars believed that all
societies are bound to pass through a similar series of stages and eventually arrive at a common
end to which development was thought to be internally determined (Long and Chakov).

Europeans from the Enlightenment period had widely accepted the notion of evolutionary
progression of societies. The concept of evolutionary schemes had already been utilized by
philosophers during the 18th century. Among them was Montesquieu who classified the
evolutionary process into three stages: Hunting or savagery, herding or barbarism, and
civilization. His division would later become popular with the Victorian social theorists, and was
adopted by the pioneers of unilineal evolutionism, Edward Burnett Tyler and Lewis Henry
Morgan.

Proponents of the 19th Century Anthropology

With the imperial Europe having successfully colonized and conquered what is to them
“unknown” societies around the world. The discipline of anthropology began to formulate social
theories to unveil mysteries of these ‘unknown’ culture. As a result, the term cultural evolution
was coined in attempt to provide a meaningful discussion to explain the diverse characteristics of
the unfamiliar societies.

Edward B. Tyler who formulated the most influential definition of culture “culture or
civilization is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” was a British
anthropologist who rejected the idea that indigenous cultures such as the American Indians are
examples of cultural degeneration. He believed that these primitive societies are also capable into
developing to a higher and complex form of societies by passing through the three stages of
evolution: from savagery to barbarism and eventually to civilization.

Tylor, along with other evolutionists theorized that every society were at the different
stages of their evolution, to which he claimed that the ‘simpler or the primitive’ cultures have yet
to reach the peaks of evolution (they believed that Europe is the peak of civilization). To support
his claims, he suggested the existence of the “survivals” or the traces of earlier customs that are
still present up to this day. He noted that some cultural traits may spread from one culture to
other culture through diffusion. Tyler also believed in the concept of psychic unity—the idea that
all people think the same way, has the same capacity for development, and the same desire for
development.

The proponent of the 19th century anthropology was Lewis Henry Morgan, also
considered as one of the founding fathers of modern anthropology. He was best known for his
work Ancient Society where he divided the evolution of human culture into same stages Tylor
suggested: savagery, barbarism, and civilization to which he subdivided into another stages that
is distinguished through the development of their technology. He categorized these stages into:
(1) middle savagery that is marked by the acquisition of fire; (2) upper savagery with bow and
arrow; (3) lower barbarism by pottery; (4) middle barbarism by irrigation and animal
domestication;(5) upper barbarism by the capabilities to manufacture iron; and (5) civilization by
phonetic alphabet. He also claimed that social organizations form because of the changes in food
production (Britannica, n.d.). Morgan also suggested that the stage of civilization can be
distinguished by marital relationships—he believed that society is more developed as family
units become smaller and more self-contained.
Contributions to Anthropology

The attempts of the early evolutionists to establish anthropology as a discipline was

fundamental to the organization of the discipline itself. The ideas it birthed, gave rise to the
anthropological thoughts and research methodologies that were later used developed by the
successors of the practice. The theories in 19 th century anthropology became the starting line of
the modern anthropology.

Criticisms

Morgan’s notion of human social life advances from an initial stage of promiscuity
through various forms of family life that culminated in monogamy was questionable since he did
not provide enough amount of ethnographic data to support his claims. It was very ironic that as
data became more accessible to the evolutionists, the more their works failed to reflect what they
thought culture was.

Today, the evolutionism theory of the 19 th century anthropology had been widely rejected
because their theories are unable to satisfactorily account for the occurrence of cultural variation.
there are some societies today lodged in “upper savagery” and others in “civilization.” The
“psychic unity of mankind” or “germs of thought” that were postulated to account for parallel
evolution cannot also account for these cultural differences (Long and Chakov).

Also, thoughts in early evolutionist’s theories fail to explain as to why some societies
have regressed or even become extinct. And although some societies are considered as ‘civilized’
already; there exists those who have not gone through all the stages (Olson). Basically, early
evolutionist theory fails explain the details of cultural evolution and variation as how current
anthropology define them. Lastly, the most dominant criticism towards the nineteenth century
was it unintendedly promoted highly ethnocentric views—it upheld the idea that the highest level
of development mankind could ever reach was represented by the Victorian society.
References:

Long, H. & Chakov, K. (n.d, n.d.). Social Evolutionism. The University of Alabama.
https://anthropology.ua.edu/theory/social-evolutionism/

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (2021, December 13). Lewis Henry Morgan.

Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/unilineal-cultural-evolution

Olson, Kirsten (2015, January 31). Unilinear Evolution. Prezi.

https://prezi.com/a2avt_8uhmyn/unilinear-evolution/#:~:text=Weaknesses%3A,Justified
%20Western%20colonialism%2C%20domination