Evolutionary Theory

Slides 1-2 Good afternoon, everyone! Today, I’ll be introducing the evolutionary
perspective, particularly on how to use it in analyzing communities.
My presentation involves discussing
Slide 3 We are all familiar with Evolutionary Theory in biological perspective. In
1830’s, Charles Darwin introduced the idea of natural selection and worked
with Alfred Russel Wallace to further the study. It was in 1859 when On the
Origins of Species was published.

[slide 3] Darwinian Evolutionary theory

Natural selection posits that the evolution of an organism depends on their
capabilities to adapt to the changing environment, or commonly known as
“survival of the fittest.” The survival characteristics are then passed on to next
generations, by which then still undergo the process of change, through time.

With natural selection, diversity and adaptive features of a living organism

were highlighted. According to Darwin, the group of organisms have variable
traits that are inherited and passed on to generations. As these organisms
struggle for “existence”, only vigorous (stronger and highly adaptable) traits
will continue and progress in the next generations. Often, an organism’s
inability to adapt due to progress, leads to extinction. (Although, it could also
mean a slower process of production or gaps in temporal records). Basically, it
eradicates unnecessary traits and retain on those important ones to further
evolve in the continuously changing environment.

Example of an animal that evolved or is evolving through natural selection is

the giraffe. Those with longer necks tend to have more offspring as they feed
better and are relatively stronger than those with shorter necks. They will then
pass this biological trait to future generation.
Slide 4 But evolutionary theory or paradigm is not only applicable in biology. This can
also be use in looking at the changes within the society.

In sociological sense, evolutionary theory is define as follows:

“Multilinear process”
Slide 5 Darwin: Enabled the better understand the concept of "deciphering of genes"
and on fighting naturally occurring diseases

Wallace: Collaborated with Darwin on illustrating the concept of Evolutionary

Theory, although unlike Darwin who touched on “individualistic” benefits of
change and adaptation, Wallace’s idea of selection focused more on the group
benefits.

Spencer: Labeled as “Social Darwinist” who argued that social inequality is

“natural” as part of natural selection or survival of the fittest idea. (The ones
who can reproduce successfully and survive are able to pass their traits to the
next generation, and if the environment changes, survival traits must evolve or
change to adapt to the new environment [NGS, 2023]
 He believed that advocating for social change (and just maintain the status quo)
may not be necessary and since evolution and transformation of society.

Comte:

Durkheim: Aside from one of sociologist who explained the concept of

integrity and coherence, he also touched on the evolutionary perspective by
explaining progression of social organization from simple to complex
Slide 6 But what are the difference between biological and sociological perspective in
Evolutionary theory? Or is there really a difference?

Organismic – holistic view of the organism (self-actualization or self-

realization)
Teleology - promoting or accomplishing certain end or outcome;
accomplishing a purpose rather than understanding the possible cause of the
phenomenon

Ontogenetic - the portion of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social

development that can be attributed to experiences with the environment and
the individuals within the environment

Cultural evolution will not shape behavior and social organization in ways that
maximize genetic fitness

Biological traits – acquired all at once

Sociological traits – acquired sequentially or over protracted period of time,
where an acquired information earlier stage may affect acquisition process at a
late part)
Slide 7 In sociological perspective, evolutionary paradigm allows better understanding
of community based on the following:

Slide 8 Environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) is the ancestral environment

to which a species is adapted. It is the set of selection pressures that shaped an
adaptation

Pressures can be any factor that affects the reproductive process

Slide 9 Macroevolutionary theory elucidates the diversity and intricacy of
contemporary society post-WWII.

Communities of interest
- where people living in the cities create "fictional kinship group" and
interest units to achieve collective goals
Slide 10 Gene culture co-evolution – how cultural change affect genetic evolution ;
complex and unpredictable

Transmitted traits
Cultural transmission are complex process due to presence of societal factors,
influencing the transference of cultural traits.
In ev(Social Learning)
 Vertical – parental transmission
Oblique – non parental transmission
Horizontal – transmission through peers

Continuous traits
o Behavioral traits, that can either be innate (genetically transmitted) and
culturally acquired (adaptation or response to the environment),whereas, the
spatially varying environmental patterns would highly favor the cultural
transmission while stable environments would favor the genetic
transmission
o Game changing innovation like the shift from foraging (hunting and
gathering) to agriculture paved way for change in lifestyle and an increase in
population that needs food resources -- this transformation altered the
parameters, thus also altered the cultural equilibrium
Slide 11 Epigenetic changes
CDC states that: Reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they
can change how your body reads a DNA sequence
Another example is smoking: smoking can lower your DNA methylation
(where it blocks the proteins that attach to DNA to “read” the gene) – fertility
and hormone production (FDA, 2021)

Neurological and Neurogenetic structures - bond between mother and child (less
clothing, more attached) → once established, social bonds (pair-bonding) to other
societal members can easily take place.

Paleolithic to Nuclear families - from dos-knit to extremely weak and unstable

social network
Slide 12 Examples:
declining birth rate in the postindustrial society and promotion of small family
size (in Darwinian concept, people conceive more offspring, who will undergo
the process of "survival of the fittest) resulting to demographic transition -
contradicting the natural selection and cultural transmission

Niche construction - organisms can also actively transform their environments

in ways that can determine their success.

o Unusual nations
 Traditional Japanese as "supertribe" having strong connections
belonging to their nation where behavior is governed by
morality or honor instead of law → higher happiness index
scale
 Bhutan and gross national happiness
 Community vitality- strength and weaknesses of
relationships and interactions within communities,
trust and belonging

Slide 13  pre-industrial society - reliance on available food and fibers; division of labor
is distributed to specialized tasks (p. 120)
o Hunting and gathering - kinship, family- as social institution,
ascribed statuses such as gender, age, family background;
o Horticultural societies- production of tools and household objects
and planting; limited technology with just using sticks and hoes to
 cultivate crops
o Agrarian societies - production of food; individualized task such as
netmaking and relies on physical power of human and animals
 Establishment of human settlement and elaboration of social
institutions and emphasis on the importance of property
rights
 Creation of artifacts - statues, public monuments, and art
objects passed from one generation to another
 Industrial society (machine dependent)
o Utilization of mechanical power to labor tasks and relied on new
innovations to produce their food
o Shift from agrarian economy to industrial economy (p. 120)
o Presence of industrial facilities to manufacture societal basic
necessities instead of family or individual ("workers").
o Distributed power and authority; interdependence and families were
not self-sufficient anymore
o Formal schooling and education emerge as new social institution

 Postindustrial and post modern society

o Swift of occupational structure of industrial society from
manufacturing to service economies
o Daniel bell (1970s)
 Positive development of service oriented outputs than
manufactured goods such as information control and
processing
 Occupations are focused on teaching, dissemination, und
generation of ideas ( write-dollar jobs such as scientist,
engineers, economists)
 Rise of interest groups who advocate for health, education
and environment (p. 121)
 Open and competitive decision making process thus less
conflict and more stable society
 Michael Harrington argument: social class conflict will
remain
o Post modern society
 technology-dependent society occupied with consumer
goods and media images where culture transcends national
borders (cross cultural) including online social networks
 Focus on newly emerging cultural forms and patterns of
social interaction (p.121)
 Display same inequalities