Cultural evolutionism

Cultural evolutionism or cultural evolution attempts to describe and explain long-term change in human sociology, insofar as those ways are socially rather than biologically acquired. As the development of a culture, it may be viewed as a uni-linear or multi-linear phenomenon. Uni-linear describes the change in human behaviour whereas multi-linear describes the change in separate cultures and societies.^[1]

Culture as applied to evolution involves the transmission of information (particularly from generation to generation) by all non-genomic means - through the senses by example, or by instructions involving language. "Cultural evolution" therefore encompasses the generation and selection of new 'learning' by all means other than encoding in the genome. Although cultural evolution is not entirely peculiar to man (see for example: John Tyler Bonner, The Evolution of Culture in Animals (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980)) it is in a highly developed form restricted to man and much tied up with the development of language and writing.

The idea that human culture changes with time is evident with the fact that human beings have become a more civilized species through history.^[2]

Though often used interchangeably with the terms "social evolution" and "sociocultural evolution," the term "cultural evolution" sometimes is useful for specifying a focus on long-term change not in properties of a social group as such (e.g., its sheer size or location), but in the way of life–the characteristic artifacts, behaviors, and ideas–of the group. Defined this way, cultural evolutionism is not inherently ethnocentric, though of course the cultural past can be – and often has been – interpreted ethnocentrically. Today, many archaeologists, some cultural anthropologists, and even some sociologists are self-identified cultural evolutionists; and many more scholars are shown, by virtue of their research interests, to fit this definition. For example, the international scientific research project, the Seshat: Global History Databank takes an explicitly cultural evolutionary approach to human history.

History

Historically, cultural evolution occurred through migration. Migration happens as a result of war, geographical changes or survival requirements and demands. War affected the cultures morals, and regions (if they were dominated etc.) Regional domination could imply control over the population, causing the citizens to move. (see Arcadian movement 16th century) Geographic factors, such as climate affects the individual's attire. For instance, a warmer climate typically requires less clothing, and a colder climate requires additional clothing. A population in either of these climates, will make their attire accommodate to the temperature, therefore creating materialistic culture.

There had also been evidence explaining that cultural evolution was the result of cultural diffusion, the movement and spread of cultural patterns to another culture. The method of adoption of different cultural practices for social equilibrium maintenance, could have resulted in diffusion of culture during the adaptation of the changes.^[3]

Today, the theory of cultural evolution is an (often unstated) underpinning for other, more complex explanations for cultural change, and for the most part archaeologists believe that social changes are not only driven by biology or a strict adaptation to change, but by a complex web of social, environmental, and biological factors.

Footnotes

↑ "cultural evolution (social science) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/146212/cultural-evolution>.
↑ Heine, S.J.(2008) Cultural Psychology p.45
↑ Michael G, Michlovic. (1986). Cultural Evolutionism and Plains Archaeology. Plains Anthropological Society. 31(113), 207-218. JSTOR 25668613

Culture

Outline

Sciences	Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory Neuroculture

Subfields	Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural health Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing

Types	Constructed culture Dominant culture Folk culture High culture Individualistic culture Legal culture Low culture Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Urban Primitive culture Subculture Alternative culture list Super culture Vernacular culture Culture by location

Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural behavior Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures Interculturality Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Print culture Protoculture Safety culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture

Politics	Colonial mentality Consumer capitalism Cross cultural sensitivity Cultural assimilation Cultural attaché Cultural backwardness Cultural Bolshevism Cultural conservatism Cultural contracts Cultural deprivation Cultural diplomacy Cultural environmentalism Cultural exception Cultural feminism Cultural genocide Cultural globalization Cultural hegemony Cultural imperialism Cultural intelligence Cultural liberalism Cultural nationalism Cultural pessimism Cultural policy Cultural racism Cultural radicalism Cultural retention Cultural Revolution Cultural rights Cultural safety Cultural silence Cultural subsidy Cultural Zionism Culture change Culture minister Culture of fear Culture war Deculturalization Dominator culture Interculturalism Intraculturalism Monoculturalism Multiculturalism Biculturalism Pluriculturalism Security culture Transculturism

Related	Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Bullying culture Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Coffee culture Cross-cultural Cultural center Cultural Christian Cultural Mormon Cultural competence Cultural critic Cultural Detective Cultural determinism Cultural diversity Cultural encoding Cultural evolutionism Cultural homogenization Cultural institution Cultural jet lag Cultural Judaism Cultural lag Cultural literacy Cultural mosaic Cultural movement Cultural mulatto Cultural Muslim Cultural probe Cultural relativism Culture speculation Cultural tourism Pop-culture Cultural translation Cultural turn Cultural sensibility Culture and positive psychology Culture and social cognition Culture gap Culture hero Culture industry Culture shock Culturgen Children's culture Culturalism Cyberculture Death and culture Disability culture Deaf culture Emotions and culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Remix culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture

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Cultural evolutionism

History

See also

Footnotes