1

Name:

Instructor:

Course:

Date:

Define the key elements of Leslie White's law theory.

Leslie White argued that "culture develops as the quantity of energy harnessed per capita per

year is raised, or as the efficiency of the instrumental methods of putting the energy to work

is improved," assuming all other variables stay constant. White distinguished between three

aspects of culture, namely the technical, the social, and the ideological. The technology

component, he contended, is especially important to or decisive for understanding the

Cultural Revolution. Technology is an effort to address the challenges of survival, according

to White's reasoning. In the end, the goal of this effort is to collect enough power to meet

human demands. The more energy is captured and used effectively, the greater the society

benefits. According to him, "man as an animal species, and hence civilization as a whole, is

reliant upon the material, mechanical methods of adjustment to the natural environment," a

phrase that exemplifies his materialist outlook. The technical aspect includes the tools

themselves and the methods through which they are used. White argues that "the main

purpose of culture" is the capacity to "harness and govern energy" and that this skill

ultimately defines a culture's degree of development. White stressed the central significance

of the change from a focus on family and the sharing of finite resources to a focus on

property accumulation and non-kinship relationships inside the state. There are five distinct

eras of human development that White identifies. In the beginning, folks rely on their very

own muscular might. And secondly, they harness the power of domesticated animals. Third,

they harness plant-based energy sources (White refers to the agricultural revolution here). As
 2

a fourth step, they master using fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas for energy. Fifthly, they use

nuclear power.

Summarize how the positions of Leslie's white theory differ.

The Development of Civilization up to the Fall of Rome is credited for reigniting interest in

social evolutionism and is regarded as a significant member of the neo-evolutionist camp. He

believed that culture, in the sense of the total of all human endeavors to create a culture on

the globe, was progressing. White is of the opinion that the natural processes of biological

evolution bestowed uniquely on man — and only man — a new and distinguishable skill: the

ability to communicate via the use of signs and symbols. Communication via articulate

speech is considered to be the most significant kind of symbolic communication. Articulate

speech implies the exchange of ideas, the preservation of tradition via communication, and

the accumulation and progression of knowledge through tradition. A new order of

occurrences, one that is extra bodily and cultural, came into being as a direct consequence of

the development of the ability to symboling. The employment of symbols is the seed from

which all civilizations grow, and it is also what ensures their continued existence. A culture,

often known as a civilization, is nothing more than a particular sort of shape that the life-

sustaining and biological activities of a certain species, man, adopt.

Outline which position you find most persuasive

One of the most compelling arguments is that human conduct is a symbolic activity and that

if something isn't symbolic, we can't call it human behavior.

Define the key elements of ARradcliffe brown theory

According to Radcliffe-Brown, all studies on the social organization are founded on

observations or what anthropologists observe and hear about specific people. Additionally,

Radcliffe-Brown claimed that the study of social structure embraced the culture(Radcliffe-

Brown, Alfred Reginald, and Daryll Forde2015). As a result, there was no need for a distinct
 3

discipline devoted to studying culture. His empirical definition of social structure was that

structured social links constitute "normal" social interactions (those aspects of social

activities that conform to accepted social rules or norms). The members of this society are

obligated to participate in activities that benefit the group as a whole, thanks to these

regulations. According to Radcliffe-Brown, the premise that culture is an integrated system

underpins the practical way of interpretation. In the community's daily activities, each

component of the culture fulfils a unique and important role.

Summarize how the position of ARradcliffe brown theory differs.

Radcliffe-Brown advocated that rather than attempting to explain social phenomena in

historical or psychological terms, which he felt to be impossible, the phenomena should

instead be understood as permanent systems of adaptation, coaptation, and integration. His

primary working premise was that the existence of a society might be conceptualized as a

dynamic fiduciary system consisting of components that are functionally coherent and

dependent on one another. In his concluding formulation, "structure" refers to the

arrangement of humans, while "organization" refers to the arrangement of activities

(Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald, and Daryll Forde2015). At the same time, he advocated

shifting away from the notion of "culture" and instead focusing on "social systems." There

was a connection between all of these shifts. Radcliffe-Brown pushed anthropology to

liberate itself from preoccupation with what Whitehead referred to as "the goading urgency of

contingent events" to attain the goal of scientific explanation. Although he identified as a

humanist, he recognized that a humanist approach to anthropology remained in its infancy

and may impede comprehensive induction, comparison, and generalization.

Outline which position you find most persuasive

 4

The most compelling argument is that "Social structure is the continual arrangement of

people in relationships defined or regulated by institutions," which are the standards and

patterns of conduct formed by society as a whole.

Define the key elements of Lewis Henry Morgan's theory

Morgan created the idea of social evolution, which holds that human civilizations go through

three phases of development: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. Savages are the most

primitive humans, capable only of hunting wild animals and getting their food from the wild.

Morgan argued that home design and house culture changes in the Americas mirrored shifts

in the nature of family and property ownership (White, Leslie A.2016). Morgan is widely

recognized as the man who established the field of kinship studies, even though many of his

ideas have been discredited since his time. Tools, farming methods, and the development of

the alphabet all required additional traits, according to his theory, before moving on to the

next stage. A property-based administration, language, the institution of the nuclear family,

and the spread of religious concepts were crucial indicators of cultural development and

advancement towards civilization. Studying a tribe in an earlier stage may provide light on

the beginnings of development for a later stage because, as Morgan explains, human progress

is unidirectional, heading toward the enhanced living and increasing domestic amenities of

the West. These assertions assume that the same genetic factors give rise to similar cultural

practices across all human populations.

Summarize how the position of Henry Morgan's theory differs.

Morgan's theories on the progression of technology through time are now widely

acknowledged as right, at least concerning the core features of those theories. His hypothesis

that human social life progressed from an early stage of promiscuity through different types

of family life that ended in monogamy has, however, been deemed to be invalid for a

considerable amount of time. The concept of forward movement predominates throughout

 5

Morgan's writings and speeches (White, Leslie A.2016). He envisioned it as a progression of

social states ordered on a scale, beginning with the most primitive and working its way up to

the most advanced. Historically speaking, the whole human family has made progress,

although not always in the same way. There is evidence of human progression under various

situations along the many branches of the family tree. He believed the scale had universal

applicability or was roughly the same in type, and those unique circumstances were

responsible for any departures from uniformity. He adds an anthropological spin to the

comparison and develops the comparative technique, becoming more popular in various

fields of study. Lewis refers to innovations, discoveries, and domestic institutions as ethna,

the units he identifies for these categories.

Outline which position you find most persuasive of Henry Morgan's theory

According to the Henry Morgan hypothesis, the most compelling argument supporting the

progression of human social life from an early stage of promiscuity through the many kinds

of family life that ended in monogamy is that this progression took place.
 6

References

Fortes, Meyer. Kinship and the social order: The legacy of Lewis Henry Morgan. Routledge,

2017. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203787700/kinship-

social-order-meyer-fortes

Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald, and Daryll Forde. African systems of kinship and

marriage. Routledge, 2015.

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315683416/african-

systems-kinship-marriage-radcliffe-brown-daryll-forde

White, Leslie A. The evolution of culture: the development of civilization to the fall of Rome.

Routledge, 2016.

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315418575/evolution-

culture-leslie-white