NEO-

EVOLUTIONISM
By kurra meghanath
20iamh07
WHAT,WHY,WHEN and HOW?

■ NEO-EVOLUTIONISM as a theory emerged in mid-20th century mainly from

contributions of Julian Steward,Leslie White and V.Gordon childe.
■ It is a social theory that explains the evolution of societies.
■ Classical evolutionist theory faced a sharp reaction in 1890s,especially led by franz boas
and his students.
■ They did a lot of fileld work and rejected psychic unity of mankind and propounded
‘Historical Particularism’.
■ Classical evolution faced many criticisms in this period and Diffusionism tried to
provide alternative way of explaining cultural evolution
■ In this backdrop, evolutionary revival was underway with Neo-evolutionists trying to
formulate a much more sophisticated theory than classical evolutionism.
■ Neo-evolutionism though accepted the evolution of culture, they rejected unilinear
development of culture. They said:
– 1.Culture evolved but not in a fixed sequence.Cultural stages are not
unilinear.They can be bypassed if any kind of external force is apllied

■ Eg:GREEN REVOLUTION in Punjab and Haryana

– 2.It emphasised on showing both different and similarities
■ Eg:different environment had different cultural development and different stages.
■ Culture in coastal area{Fishing culture} is very different from forests,Hills,and desert
– 3.Multi-linear evolution
■ Cultural Ecology[JULIAN STEWARD}

– 4.They were of the opinion that cultural evolution is not definite and irreversible
■ Classical evolutionists were of the view that cultural development is definite unlike neo
evolutionists who talked about probability than definity.
– 5.They explained cultural development in terms of parabola with advancement in
each successive stage with a entirely different form and lateron move on to refinef
original form.
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

AMERICAN BRITISH
J.Steward V.G.Gordon Childe
L..white
CULTURAL ECOLOGY

■ It was developed by julian steward as a methodology for understanding how humans

adapt to such a wide variety of environments
■ Cultural evolutionism took place in terms of cultural ecology
■ Different geographical regions have different environment which in turn leads to
adaptation and diverse culture
■ Multi linear development of culture
■ Different cultural tools to adapt to their environments
Leslie White

■ He was an American anthropologist who is known for his theories of evolution of

culture.
■ He wrote science of cultural book in 1949
■ For him, cultural evolution was generated by technological changes,particularly with
regard to the increased harnessing of energy per capita
■ He gave decessive importance to tehnology in cultural evolution
■ According to him culture is an energy capturing system where people harness energy by
using technology that indicates the level of development
■ Technological perspective of culture
■ Cultural tool innovation leads to less investment of less energy by man and leads to
more control of environment
■ Culture is directly proportional to total energy upon percapita per year
■ Culture is directly proportional to efficiency
■ Based on this, he gave a mathematical formula to describe cultural development of a
society
■ He introduced P=E MULTIPLIRD BY T where,
■ E is a measure of energy consumed per capita per year, T is the measure of efficiency in
utilizing energy harnessed, and p represents the degree of cultural development in terms
of product produced.
■ Thus technological advancement leads to more efficiency and more efficiency leads to
more energy accumulated which inturn determines the cultural development of a society
THE END