CULTURAL

AND
SOCIOPOLITI
CAL
EVOLUTION
Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics
TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 Introduction 02 The Neolithic

Evolution

03 Early civilization and 04 Democratization

the rise of the state
 01
Introduction
From hunting and gathering, to agricultural,
industrial and post industrial revolution
 Introduction
• The development of culture through time called Cultural evolution, led to the transformation of different
societies and political systems, a process known as Sociopolitical evolution.
• This lesson studies how hunting and gathering societies developed step by step to become agricultural,
industrial and then post-industrial societies.
• The lesson also analyzes how political evolution was clearly shown in the development of the four major
cradles of civilizations.
THE SOCIAL AS DRIVER OF INTERACTION
• The process of sociocultural evolution explains why human societies change through time.
• Societies produce new forms of subsistence, acquire more knowledge, develop different levels of
innovatioGerhard Lenski
Gerhard Lenski
• (1924-2015)
• American sociologist
• Argued that human society undergoes transformation and evolution and in the process developestechnological
advancement, called Sociocultural evolution.
• The development of technology and the information acquired by humans on how to apply societal resources as
a response to humas needs and wants leads to the evolution of society.
TYPES OF
SOCIETIES
Hunting and Gathering Society

● There are five basic characteristics of hunting and gathering societies:

● 1. The primary institution is the family, which decides how food is to
be shared and how children are to be socialized, and which provides
for the protection of its members.
● 2. They tend to be small, with fewer than fifty members.
● 3. They tend to be nomadic, moving to new areas when the current
food supply in a given area has been exhausted.
● 4. Members display a high level of interdependence.
● 5. Labor division is based on sex: men hunt, and women gather.
 01
Introduction
From hunting and gathering, to agricultural,
industrial and post industrial revolution
Industrial Society

CONCEPT
● USE OF TECHNOLOGY
● MASS PRODUCTION
● LARGE POPULATION
● HIGH CAPACITY
● DIVISION OF LABOR
History of Industrial Society
● The industrialization of societies and cultures began in mid-18th
century England when British manufacturers began to look for new
ways to increase production of goods in their factories.
● By harnessing the power of natural elements, like water or steam,
manufacturers were able to increase the speed of production by
incorporating the use of machines driven by the elements but still
operated by human hands.
● The increased use of new tools and machinery meant that
manufacturing jobs no longer required expert skills or brute strength
● Second revolution started in the Mid-19 century, with the steam engine
History of Industrial Society
● The combination of technology and economic order that
characterized industrial societies ultimately became the key
organizers of society and social life, and that this limited free and
creative thinking, and our choices and actions.
● An industrialized society is considered to be modern society or it
can be defined as people living together in current time.
● Modern society is often called materialistic, where people no longer
produce product for living. Instead they produce goods to sell in the
market. People don’t rely their own. For example they go to market
for groceries instead of owning gardens and animals
Post Industrial Society
● A post-industrial society is a stage in a society's evolution
when the economy shifts from producing and providing
goods and products to one that mainly offers services. A
manufacturing society is comprised of people working in
construction, textiles, mills and production workers whereas
in the service sector, people work as teachers, doctors,
lawyers and retail workers. In a post-industrial society,
technology, information and services are more important
than manufacturing actual goods.
Post Industrial Society

● Characteristics of Post-Industrial Societies

● Production of goods (like clothing) declines and the
production of services (like restaurants) goes up.
● Manual labor jobs and blue collar jobs are replaced with
technical and professional jobs.
● Society experiences a shift from focusing on practical
knowledge to theoretical knowledge. The latter involves
the creation of new, invention solutions.
Post Industrial Society
● Sociologist Daniel Bell made the term "post-industrial" popular in
1973 after discussing the concept in his book "The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting". He described
the following shifts associated with post-industrial societies:
● There is a focus on new technologies, how to create and utilize them
as well as harness them.
● New technologies foster the need for new scientific approaches like
IT and cybersecurity.
● Society needs more college graduates with advanced knowledge who
can help develop and advance technological change.
 02
The Neolithic Evolution
Neolithic Evolution
● The Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural
Revolution, marked the transition in human history from
small, nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to larger,
agricultural settlements and early civilization. The
Neolithic Revolution started around 10,000 B.C. in the
Fertile Crescent, a boomerang-shaped region of the
Middle East where humans first took up farming. Shortly
after, Stone Age humans in other parts of the world also
began to practice agriculture. Civilizations and cities grew
out of the innovations of the Neolithic Revolution.
Neolithic Age
● The Neolithic Age is sometimes called the New Stone Age. Neolithic
humans used stone tools like their earlier Stone Age ancestors, who
eked out a marginal existence in small bands of hunter-gatherers
during the last Ice Age.
Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe coined the term “Neolithic
Revolution” in 1935 to describe the radical and important period of
change in which humans began cultivating plants, breeding animals
for food and forming permanent settlements. The advent of agriculture
separated Neolithic people from their Paleolithic ancestors.
Many facets of modern civilization can be traced to this moment in
history when people started living together in communities.
Causes of Neolithic Revolution
● There was no single factor that led humans to begin farming roughly
12,000 years ago. The causes of the Neolithic Revolution may have varied
from region to region.
The Earth entered a warming trend around 14,000 years ago at the end of
the last Ice Age. Some scientists theorize that climate changes drove the
Agricultural Revolution.
In the Fertile Crescent, bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea
and on the east by the Persian Gulf, wild wheat and barley began to grow
as it got warmer. Pre-Neolithic people called Natufians started building
permanent houses in the region.
Other scientists suggest that intellectual advances in the human brain
may have caused people to settle down.
Effects of Neolithic Revolution

● The Neolithic Revolution led to masses of people

establishing permanent settlements supported by
farming and agriculture. It paved the way for the
innovations of the ensuing Bronze Age and Iron
Age, when advancements in creating tools for
farming, wars and art swept the world and brought
civilizations together through trade and conquest.
 03
Early Civilization
Early Civilization
● The term civilization refers to complex societies, but the specific
definition is contested.
● The advent of civilization depended on the ability of some agricultural
settlements to consistently produce surplus food, which allowed some
people to specialize in non-agriculturalwork, which in turn allowed for
increased production, trade, population, and social stratification.
● The development of the early civilizations showed the political evolution
of society.
● The first civilizations appeared in locations where the geography was
favorable to intensive agriculture.
● Early civilizations were often unified by religion.
Four Major Civilizations
● Sumerian civilization - developed along the
tigris and euphrates river in west asia
● Indus Valley civilization - started along the
Indus River Valley in India
● Shang civilization of China - developed near the
Huang Ho/ Huang He River
● Egyptian civilization- started along the Nile
River.
Characteristics of these civilization
● Developed and highly advanced cities
● Well defined city centers
● Complex and systematic institutions
● Organized and centralized system of government
● Formalized and comples form of religion
● Job specialization
● Development of social classes
● Implementation of large-scale public works and infrastructure like
defense walls, monuments, temples, mausoleums, government
edifices, trading centers, and markets.
● Sophisticated and detailed forms of arts and architecture
● Advanced technology
● System of writing and recording
 04
Democratization
Democratization
● Democratization is a process which leads to a more open, more
participatory, less authoritarian society. Democracy is a system of
government which embodies, in a variety of institutions and mechanisms,
the ideal of political power based on the will of the people.
● In places from Latin America to Africa, Europe and Asia,
numbers of authoritarian regimes have given way to democratic
forces, increasingly responsive Governments and increasingly open
societies. Many States and their peoples have embarked upon a
process of democratization for the first time. Others have moved to
restore their democratic roots.
Democratization
● The basic idea of democracy is today gaining adherents across
cultural, social and economic lines. While the definition of democracy
is an increasingly important subject of debate within and
among societies, the practice of democracy is increasingly regarded
as essential to progress on a wide range of human concerns and to
the protection of human rights.
● Both democratization and democracy raise difficult questions
of prioritization and timing. It is therefore not surprising that the
acceleration of democratization and the renaissance of the idea of
democracy have met with some resistance. On the practical level,
the world has seen some slowing and erosion in democratization
processes and, in some cases, reversals. On the normative level,
resistance has arisen which in some cases seeks to cloak
authoritarianism in claims of cultural differences and in others
reflects the undeniable fact that there is no one model of democratization
or democracy suitable to all societies
Democratization
● democratization, process through which a political regime becomes
democratic. The explosive spread of democracy around the world
beginning in the mid-20th century radically transformed the
international political landscape from one in which democracies were
the exception to one in which they were the rule. The increased
interest in democratization among academics, policy makers, and
activists alike is in large part due to the strengthening of
international norms that associate democracy with many important
positive outcomes, from respect for human rights to economic
prosperity to security.
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