Prepared by: Elmar C.

Malunes
 Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology
 Sociocultural evolution- refers  The more technological
to the changes that occur as a information a society has, the
society gains new technology. faster it changes while
technologically simple societies
 Societies with complex change very slow.
technology are certainly more  Inventing or adopting new
productive so that they can technology sends ripple of
support hundreds of millions of change throughout society.
people with far more material
affluence.
TYPES OF SOCIETIES
 Hunting and Gathering Societies
 oldest and the most basic of all societies
 people live by hunting and gathering
 making use of simple tools to hunt animals
and gather vegetation for food
 hunters and gatherers have little control
over the environment
 most of their time spent in searching for
food
 with few dozen members of society
 nomadic, rarely form permanent
settlements
 Hunting and Gathering Societies
 depend on family to do many things:
gathering and distribution of food,
educating children as well as protecting its
members
 women gathers vegetation, men do the
hunting
 egalitarian type of society
 shaman or spiritual leader – enjoys high
prestige but has to work to find food like
everyone else
 Hunting and Gathering Societies

 Uses simple weapons- spear, bow and

arrow, stone knife but rarely use it to wage
war
 Their real enemy is the force of nature
 Many die in childhood, no more than half
reach the age of 20
 Practice animism- they believe many
spirits inhabit the world
 Hunting and Gathering Societies

Examples:

• Pygmies of Central Africa

• Bushmen of southwestern
Africa
• Aborigines of Australia
• Semai of Malaysia,
• Kaska Indians of Canada
 Horticultural Societies
 Existed 10, 000 to 12, 000 years ago
 horticulture – the use of hand tools to raise
crops
 Uses hoe to work the soil, and digging stick
to punch holes in the ground to plant seeds
 These type of societies give up gathering in
favor of growing their own food
 Formed settlements, move when soil is
depleted
 Humans first planted garden in the fertile
regions of the middle east and then Latin
America and Asia
 Horticultural Societies
 Within some 5,ooo years, cultural
diffusion spread knowledge of horticulture
throughout most of the world.
 Practice ancestor worship and conceive of
God as Creator.
 A little inequality emerged

 Not all societies abandoned hunting and

gathering societies in favor of horticulture.
 Some region areas are found horticulture a
little value thus some people turned to
pastoralism.
 Pastoral Societies
 Pastoralism- the domestication of animals
 Growing plants and domestication of
animals greatly increased food production
 Remained nomadic
 Religion began to spread
 Society is capable of producing a material
surplus- more resources able to feed
hundreds of people- not everyone has to
work in providing food
2 patterns occur with pastoralism

1. Transhumance- parts of the group moves with herds but most stay in the village
2. Pastoral Nomadism- the entire group moves with animals
 Pastoral Societies
 Specialization of skills developed: some
makes crafts, others engage in trading, cut
hair, apply tattoos or served as priest
 Socially diverse
 Domestication of plants and animals made
society more productive but never entirely
beneficial.
 Greater inequality emerged
 Horticultural and Pastoral Societies
Examples:

• New Guinea and other

• Pacific islands,
• Yanomamö today in South
America
 Agricultural Societies

 Existed about 5, 000 years ago when another

technological revolution taking place in Middle East
that would end up changing life on Earth
 Agriculture- large scale cultivation using plows
harnessed to animals or more powerful energy
sources
 So important was the invention of the animal-
drawn plow, along with other breakthroughs of the
period—including irrigation, the wheel, writing,
numbers, and the use of various metals—that this
moment in history is often called the “dawn of
civilization.”
 Agricultural Societies
 Farmers can cultivate fields larger than
plots worked by horticulturalist
 Permanent settlement
 Large food surplus
 Money became the standard of exchange
 Cities grew, populations soared into
millions
 Exhibit dramatic social inequality
 Most people are peasants or slave who do
the work
 Elite have time for more “refined” activities
including the study of philosophy, art, and  Feudalism
literature
 Agricultural Societies
Examples:

• Egypt during construction of the

Great Pyramids
• Medieval Europe
• Numerous predominantly agrarian
societies of the world today
 Industrial Societies
 Industrialism- the production of goods
using advanced sources of energy to drive
large machinery
 Until industrial era, the source of energy
was the muscles of humans and other
animals
 About 1750s, mills and factories began to
use water and then steam boilers to power
ever-larger machinery
 Societies began to change faster
 Massive production of goods
 recast society, lessening its traditional
significance as the center of social life
 Industrial Societies
Examples:

• Most societies today in Europe, North

America, Australia, and Japan, which
generate most of the world’s
industrial production.
 Postindustrial Societies

 Daniel Bell coined the term

postindustrialism- the production of
information using computer technology
 Post production relies on computer and
other electronic devices that create,
process, store and apply information
 Less labor force
 Joins nations to build a global economy
Postindustrial Societies
 More complex technology has made
life better by raising productivity,
reducing infectious disease, and
sometimes just relieving boredom.
But technology provides no quick
fix for social problems.
 Poverty- 1 billion people
worldwide
 Most seriously, an increasing
number of the world’s nations have
used nuclear technology to build
weapons that could send the entire
world back to the Stone Age—if
humanity survives at all.
 Advancing technology has also
threatened the physical
environment.
 Technological advances have
improved life and brought the
world’s people closer. But
establishing peace, ensuring justice,
and protecting the environment are
problems that technology alone
cannot solve.
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