EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

 EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

Evolution is a significant social phenomenon that may be explained both socially and biologically. From Ameoba to man, biological evolution offers a long story of new species or more complex organisms evolving from simpler ones.

Throughout the late 19th century, evolutionism dominated sociology. This concept was first developed by the German sociologist Von Baer, ​​followed by Darwin, Spencer and others.

v  Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): A British Scholar was first to define evolution.

v  Spencer compared society to an organism. The biologists are concerned with the organic evolution of the body while the sociologists are concerned with the evolution of social structure, institution and organizations.

According to Herbert Spencer, all physical or social changes show a similar pattern and all such patterns are based on the principle of EVOLUTION. Spencer stated in the FIRST PRINCIPLE that evolution is a change from a relatively vague, incoherent, homogeneous state to a relatively defined, coherent and heterogeneous state.

Herbert Spencer proposed four principles of social evolution.

1 Cultural or human element of the law of cosmic evolution is social evolution.

2 Social evolution occurs in the same way that cosmic evolution occurs.

3 Social evolution occurs gradually.

4 Social evolution is a progressive process 

Spencer became convinced that there are two fundamental principles to all evolution after studying physical evolution:

(i) Moving from simple to complex.

(ii) Change from homogeneous to heterogeneous

Spencer’s theory of social evolution points out to two stages:

1. The movement from simple to compound societies.

2. Change from militant society to industrial society.

The movement from simple to compound societies—This is seen in four types of societies in terms of evolutionary levels.

1. Simple Society:

Spencer defined the simple society as “one which forms a single working whole un-subjected to any other and of which the parts co-operate with or without a regulating center for certain public ends.” These societies were predominantly small, nomadic, and lacking in stable relationship structure. They had low degrees of differentiation, specialization, and integration. Examples are the Eskimos, the Fuegians, Guiana tribes, the new Caledonians and the Pueblo Indians.

2. Compound Societies:

Compound societies were presented as having generally come about through either a peaceful or a violent merger of two or more simple societies. They tended to be predominantly settled agricultural societies, although a majority are mainly pastoral, and tended to be characterised by a division of four or five social strata and an organised priestly group. They are also characterised by Industrial structures that show in advancing division of labour, general and local. Examples are the Teutonic peoples in the fifth century, Homeric Greeks, New Zealanders, Hottentots Dahomans and Ashantees.

3. Doubly Compound Societies:

Doubly compound societies were completely settled, were more integrated and a larger and more definite political structure, a religious hierarchy, a more or less rigid caste system and more complex division of labour. Furthermore, in such societies to a greater and lesser extent, custom has passed into positive law and religious observances have grown definite, rigid and complex. Towns and roads have become general, and considerable progress in knowledge and the arts has taken place.” Examples are thirteen-Century France, Eleventh Century England, the Spartan Confederacy, the ancient Peruvians and the Guatemalans.

4. Trebly Compound Societies:

It includes “the great civilized nations” such as the Assyrian Empire, the modern Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. Spencer does not outline their traits in detail but points to their increased overall size, complexity, division of labour, popular density, integration and general cultural complexity.

  Cultures were supposed to evolve from simpler to more complex and differentiated forms, and cultural analogies were explained as the result of mankind's psychological unity.

Evolutionary school has been classified into two categories:

1          Classical Evolutionist

2          Neo Evolutionist

Classical Evolutionist can again categorizes into following sections

1        British Evolutionist (E.B. Taylor, R.R. Marrete, H.J.S. Maine, J.F. McLennan, Sir James G. Frazer and Herbert Spencer)

2        American Evolutionist (L.H. Morgan)

3        German Evolutionist (A. Bastian, J.J. Bachofen)

Neo Evolutionist can be categorized in two sections

1        American Evolutionist

2        British Evolutionist

Classical Evolutionists

E.B. Taylor: was simply undergraduate but not trained anthropologist

In 1856 he visited Mexico. His first book published entitled MEXICO AND MEXICAN in 1861

Another major work Researches into the Early History of Making and Development of Civilization in 1865. This book followed by the volume of Primitive Culture. In Primitive Culture first time classical definition of culture was given.  

According to him study of culture for mankind is the development of the society which passes through the stage of the

Savagery : discovery of phonetics and symbols

Barbarism: discovery of pottery

Civilization: starting of urbanization.

These are the stages which requires rising from primitive to advance stage for cultural development.

R.R. Marett (1866-1943)

Marett was the student of E.B. Taylor. He was interested in study of “Primitive Religion”. He was very influence with his teacher E.B. Taylor and wrote a biography in which he described systematically about concept of animism.

He wrote a book entitled The Threshold of Religion in 1909.

James Frazer (1854-1941)

He was the fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University. He wrote a book entitled Golden Bough in 1890. In this book he explained that early man did not know anything about science, they pose the wrong idea of natural causes.

He said that all societies development pass through the three stages

Magic (magic was based on the law of similarity and law of contact)

Religion and

Science  

According to Frazer early man believed in nature and developed imaginary thought which are not in real course. Frazer said that in the stage of religion man developed illusionary thought and after that human enter into scientific stage.

L.H. Morgan: (1818-1881) American Classical Evolutionist

He was a lawyer and did his research work on Iroquois Indians. He wrote a book named League of the Iroquois in 1851.

ü  Believing human societies have evolved from lower to higher types, L.H. Morgan postulated three stages of evolution

1      Savagery

2      Barbarism

3      Civilization

ü  Savagery and barbarism were further subdivided into older, middle and later periods

ü  He kept the older savagery category empty as no living society could be put into that category. In terms of technological innovations Morgan said that man in savage era invented fire, bow and pottery.

ü  In the barbarian era occurred the domestication of animals, agriculture and metal working.

ü  Civilizational stage came with the alphabet and writing.

ü  Morgan called savage societies communistic and argued that the concept of private property grew as societies advanced technologically.

ü  Morgan viewed technological advancement as a driving force behind social progress.

ü  For marriage as such Morgan believed that in beginning there was promiscuity, which gave way to group marriages and then polyandry and polygyny and finally monogamy.

 

ü  In a similar fashion Morgan talked of the evolution of family. He listed five successive forms of family

 

The consanguine family: it was a family in which siblings -- own and collateral married as a group

.

The Punalaun family: (I) it was either a family of all sisters with their husbands, though the husbands were not consanguineally related to one another or (II) a family of brothers with their wives - though the wives were not related to each other. In both cases they shared their spouses.

 

The syndasmian family: it was created through a marriage between single pairs but without exclusive rights of cohabitation and the relationship could be broken at any time by either party.

The patriarchal family: it was founded by a man marrying several wives (polygyny)

The monogamous family: defined social evolution in terms of progressing.

German Evolutionist

J.J. Bachofen (1815-1877)

He was also a lawyer and believed that matrilineal preceded the patrilineal

Emile Durkheim defined social development as a movement from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity

In mechanical solidarity --: people are self-sufficient The collective conscience of society Using force and oppression to hold society together

In organic solidarity--: people are much more integrated and interdependent Specialization and collaboration are extensive Population growth and population density change mechanical solidarity into organic solidarity.

The increasing specialization of jobs led to a high division of labor. In the 20th century, Leslie A. White continued to influence evolutionary theory by focusing on human history as a whole. He described the course of development from the "Primate revolution" to the "Fall of Rome" in which energy played a key role.

 

In his book The Evolution of Culture, The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome (1959), Leslie White tried to explain the entire history of humanity in terms of technological development. According to him, society's energy consumption is a measure of its progress. He distinguished five stages of human development.

Stage I: People use their muscle energy

Stage II: Humans use the energy of domestic animals

Stage III: Humans Use Plant Energy (Agricultural Revolution)

Stage IV: People use energy from natural resources

Stage V: Humans use nuclear energy (modern industrial societies )

 Another important contribution to evolutionary thought in Gerhard Lenski's Power and Prestige (1966) and Human Societies: An Introduction to Macro Sociology (1974), Lenski expanded on the work of Leslie White and Lewis Henry Morgan. According to Lenski, society's progress depends on how much information and knowledge it possesses. He distinguished four stages of human development in the history of communication.

Stage I: Information is passed on through genes

Stage II: The person gains awareness, he can learn and transfer knowledge

Stage III: The person begins to use signs and develop logic

Stage IV: Man can create symbols and develop language and writing

Lenski found that the development of communication technology is manifested in the development of the economic system and politics, the distribution of goods, social inequality and other areas of social life. Based on this (with the help of technology, communication and economics) he classified societies

1        Hunters and gatherers

2        Simple agricultural societies

3        Advanced agricultural societies

4        Industry associations

5        Special leagues (like fishing)

 

Limitation  

ü  The steps were generally not true  

ü  Denied the importance of inventions

ü  Thinkers avoided the importance of propagation  

ü  It assumes that all cultures follow the same path or development and have the same goals.