Slide 1
Cultural Evolutionary Studies
•Neofunctionalism- studies of how particular cultures adapt to their environments. Emphasizes specific
evolution and tends to follow Steward.
•Neoevolutionism- studies parallel trends in the evolution of cultural complexity. Emphasizes general
evolution and tends to follow White.
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Neofunctionalism
Integrating Functionalist and Cultural Ecological Approaches
Slide 3
Neofunctionalists Propose Ecological Functionalism
Social facts can and should be explained by their function in relating society to the surrounding social and
natural environment. Particularly interested in how ideological and sociological aspects of culture have
direct adaptive value
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•Specific Evolution- Local history of specific societies or cultures whose specific evolutionary sequences
may vary greatly.
–In organic evolution, analogous to speciation
–Equates to adaptive changes that evolve diverse new out of older forms
–Equals Stewarts multilinear evolution
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Influences on Neofunctionalism
•Based in Culture Ecology (Julian Steward)
•Notion of culture from White (Culture is extrasomatic means of adapting to the environment)
•Borrow Functionalist Perspective (Malinowski/Brown)
•Influenced by Biological Ecosystems Theory (Wynne Edwards)
•Systems Theory
Slide 6
General Systems Theory
The premise that any organization may be studied as a system to discover how component parts function
and how changes to parts affect the entire system
•System- a group of interdependent and interrelated parts forming a larger whole.
•Functionalism- analysis that attempts to explain phenomena in terms of the functions they perform in a
larger system.
Slide 7
Ecosystems Theory and the Return of Group Selection
•V.C. Wynne Edwards (1962) Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior
–observed that species frequently fail to reproduce up to their physiological capabilities
–populations of many species seemed below the carrying capacity of the environment
–to their physiological capabilities
–saw this as an adaptation to the environment (population levels remain in equilibrium w/ the ecosystem)
Slide 8
Ecology
•Study of the interrelations of various plants and animals (including humans) to their surrounding organic
and inorganic environment.
•Ecological study in biology and anthropology hinges on the concept of adaptation
Elements of Ecosystems Theory
Slide 9
•Group Selection-natural selection operates on groups, populations that overextend their food supply lose
out to groups that do not.
•Explained altruistic behavior as group selection
•Envisage natural selection as a process that ensures that individuals behave for the good of the group or
species.
Slide 10
Neofunctionalists View Culture as Component of Larger Ecosystem
•Determines
–Population Levels
–Relationship with Natural Environment
–Relationship with bordering Culture Systems
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Carrying Capacity
•The number of individuals a habitat can support with a specified subsistence technology without
deleterious effects to the environment.
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System-Serving Behavior
•Individual actions that
serve the interests of the entire group.
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Examples of Neofunctionalist Studies
•Stuart Piddocke- Kwakiutl
•Roy Rappaport – Tsembaga
Slide 14
Kwakiutl
•Hunting and gathering group on Vancouver
•Seasonally abundant resource followed by shortages required storage sedentism, territoriality.
•Organized in small chiefdoms of related patrilineages (Numayms).
•Chiefs held potlatches in return for prestige
•Chiefs highly competitive
Slide 15
Potlatch
•Festive feast characteristic of Northwest Coast Native Americans (Kwakiutl). Guests were laden with food
and gifts, whereby the host (big man) enhanced his own prestige.
–Give away food, blankets, copper, canoes and other items.
–Recipients obligated to return equal or greater value in future potlatch
•Competition intensified after arrival of Europeans (fur trade)
–Inflow of trade goods
–Population decline due to disease
Slide 16
Initial Interpretations of Kawkiutl Potlatch behavior
•Well Studied by Boas and other Historical Particularists
•Good Example of Environmental Possibilism
•Rich Environment (“fantastic surplus economy”) permitted a high degree of cultural elaboration, but did
not explain it
•Dionysian Culture- good example of non-Western behavior
Slide 17
Neofunctionalist Interpretation
•Stuart Piddocke
•Environment rich but variable form year to year, and place to place
•Numayms in poorer territories occasionally faced food shortages- starvation and warfare
•Gifts in potlatches could be exchanged for food.
Slide 18
Potlatches are a ritual homeostat in Kwakiutl Society
•Potlatches redistributed food and gifts from wealthy to needy Numayms in any given years
•Giving away surplus holds populations of wealthy Numayms in check
•Needy Numayms avoided starvation, food insecurity
Slide 19
Problem- how could ritual regulation of potlatch over food distribution ever evolve to regulate population
size?
How are competitive chiefs prevented from exploiting the system?
By participating in the potlatch and giving away wealth that could be used for offspring, successful chiefs
are performing an altruistic act!
Slide 20
Roy Rappaport
•Worked
with Tsembaga Maring (interior Papua New Guinea)
Slide 21
Costs and Benefits of pig herds
•Small herds are beneficial
–Clean up camp
–Turn over gardens
–Easily fed
•Large herds create problems
–Compete with people for food
–Damage gardens
Slide 22
Ritual cycle is a homeostat that serves to regulate the
•size of pig herds,
•frequency of warfare,
•availability of horticultural land,
•length of fallow cycle,
•military strength and alliances of a tribe.
•Human mating
Slide 23
Problem- how could ritual pig and warfare cycle ever evolve to regulate population?
How are competitive groups prevented from exploiting the system?
By participating in the ritual pig cycle, successful groups are performing an altruistic act!
Slide 24
Neoevolutionists
•Major examples
–Sahlins
–Service
–Freid
•Used specific and general evolution to reconcile Steward and White
•Advocated new general evolutionary sequence
Slide 25
•General Evolution- Major cultural changes and broad trends that have taken place in parallel ways on a
global scale. Often due to technological advancements.
–In organic evolution, emergence of higher life (genera)
–Equates to progress general trend towards more complex forms
–Equals Whites Universal Cultural Evolution
Slide 26
Neoevolutionary Stages of Cultural Evolutions
MORTON FRIED
•Egalitarian
•Ranked
•Stratified
•State
ELMAN SERVICE
•Bands
•Tribes
•Chiefdoms
•States
Slide 27
Bands
•Small, mobile,
•egalitarian
• hunting and gathering
• lack of formal government and economic institutions
•Status is achieved rather than acquired,
•as many leadership positions exists as warranted by circumstances and number of qualified people.
Slide 28
–Achieved leadership- status gained by personal abilities rather than inheritance.
–Egalitarian- Societies in which all members have equal access to resources contingent on age and sex.
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Tribes
•Egalitarian,
•larger groups that are less mobile than bands,
•Kinship based on lineages
• may practice either hunting and gathering or agriculture
• politically autonomous communities (villages).
• Status is achieved, however acquisition of prestige and wealth may be important (big men)
•sodalities are important in integrating social system and
•economy is reciprocal.
Slide 30
–Sodality- Social group organized around specific interests, goals or beliefs, whose members are not
necessarily kin.
–Reciprocity- roughly equivalent exchanges of goods and services between individuals (barter, gifts)
–Big Man- refers to the most influential person in a tribe; power is achieved; lacks coercive authority and
his position are informal and unstable; big men compete with others in reciprocity and redistribution.
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Chiefdom
•Society characterized by
•ranked social organization,
•ascribed social status, and
•redistributive exchange systems.
Slide 32
–Ascribed leadership- Status assigned by birthright, sex, or some other fixed criterion.
–Ranked Society- societies in which individuals are ranked relative to one another in terms of kinship and
ascribed status. Fewer leadership positions exist than individuals capable of filling them.
–Redistribution- Acquisition of goods or services by one politically dominant individual who then
redistributes them.
Slide 33
State
Societies that are
•stratified,
• highly territorial,
• with complex political hierarchies, and elaborate, specialized bureaucracies, and market economies.
Slide 34
–Stratified Society- large society in which whole groups of people are ranked relative to one another, with
high-ranking individuals having grater access to authority, status, and wealth.
–Market economies- economic systems based on craft specialization, trade, and monetary systems.
Slide 35
Ethnographic Analogy
using information about ethnographic cultures to understand archaeological cultures.
In cultural evolutionary studies, if two cultures are similar in respect to technology, economy, and
environment, then they are probably similar in other respects (including social and possibly ideological).
Ethnographic information from recent cultures is then used to make informed hypotheses about
archaeological cultures and to compare societies and culture traits of recorded societies with those of
prehistoric sites.
Slide 36
Are Ethnographic Analogy and the Comparative Approach the same thing?
Are 20th century neoevolutionists guilty of the same flaws that the 19th century evolutionists were?
Slide 37
In 1519, Cortez in the Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan
“passed through cities, towns, villages, markets, and irrigated fields; he saw slavery, poverty, potentates,
farmers, judges, churches, massive pyramids, roads, boats, pottery, and textiles; in short he encountered a
world whose almost every aspect he could understand in terms of his own experience as an urban Spaniard
of the 16th century (Wenke 1980)
Slide 38
Cultural Materialism
Marvin Harris
Slide 39
Works by Marvin Harris
•Rise of Anthropological Theory- comprehensive history of anthropological theory through the 1960s
emphasizing the influence of Marx and drawing together neoevolutionism and neofunctionalism.
•Popular Works
–Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches
–Cannibals and Kings
–America Now
–Many others
Slide 40
•Emic: This term denotes an approach to anthropological inquiry where the observer attempts to learn the
rules and categories of a culture in order to be able to think and act like a native (Harris 1979: 32). In other
words, one tries to "get inside the head" of the native population.
Slide 42
•Etic: This term denotes an approach where the observer does not emphasize or use native rules or
categories. Instead, the observer uses "alien" empirical categories and rules derived from the strict use of
the scientific method. Quantifiable measurements such as fertility rates, kgs. of wheat per household, and
average rainfall are used in order to develop general cultural theories without regard to whether those
measurements "mean" anything to the native population (Harris 1979:32).
Slide 43
!Kung Bushmen
Hunter-Gatherers of the Kalahari
Studied By Richard Lee
Slide 44
Sahlins 1968
•Notes on the Original Affluent Society
•Ethnographic work Among the !Kung Bushmen had shown that hunter-gatherers
–Lived long lives
–Ate well
–Had Plenty of Spare time
–Did not work as hard as farmers or urban dwellers
•Proposed that hunting and gathering societies (bands) had economies characterized by limited needs and
wants
Slide 45
Is this Progress?
Cultural Materialists are teleological but not progressive.
Causes for cultural evolutionary change are seen as economic pressures forcing adaptations
Slide 46
Differences between 19th Century of Unilineal Evolutionists and 20th Century Cultural Materialists
•Unilineal evolutionary stages
•Psychic unity of mankind
•Evolution progressive- simple to complex- teleological
•Comparative method
–Contemporary primitives
–Survivals
–Archaeology
•Scientific method - using theory to cast hypotheses
•Weak on empirical evidence
•Inheritance of acquired traits not selection
•Methodological Collectivism
•General evolutionary stages but specific evolutionary cases (multilineal•Materialist driven
•Evolution teleological simple to complex- but not progressive
•Ethnographic Analogy
•Scientific method - using theory to cast hypotheses
•Stronger on empirical evidence
•Inheritance of acquired traits not selection
•Methodological Collectivism
parallel evolution)
Slide 1
Sociobiology and the introduction of Darwinian Thinking into Anthropology
Lecture 7
Slide 2
Sociobiology
•Seeks to explain human behavior in terms of Darwinian evolution.
•Differential reproductive success shapes evolution of behavior in all organisms.
•Humans subject to same evolutionary laws as other organisms.
•Acknowledges that most cultural diversity due to learning and socialization
•However, processes of learning genetically determined to favor fitness enhancing behavior
Slide 3
•Sociobiology: the New Synthesis by E.O. Wilson - 1975
•The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins- 1976
Slide 4
Differences between Sociobiology and 20th Century Cultural Materialists
•Cultural Evolution
–Concerned with overall patterns of culture
–Teleological (progress)
–Group Selection
•Sociobiology
–Concerned with specific behaviors
–Non-teleological (fitness)
–Individual Selection (genes)
Slide 5
Possible Sociobiological Insights Posed for Cultural Variability
•Kin Selection as reflected in kinship systems
•Differences in Gender Roles
•Development of hierarchal social structures
Slide 6
Anthropological Critiques of Sociobiology
•Ignored Culture and Learning
•Based on animal behavior studies, ignores cultural anthropology
•Can be shown to be logically indefensible
•Relies on premises that promote racism, sexism, imperialism
Slide 7
Major Critiques
•Marshall Sahlins- The Use and Abuse of Biology: An Anthropological Critique of Sociobiology- 1977
•Marvin Harris- Sociobiology and Biological Reductionism- 1979
Slide 8
M.Harris
•Reproductive Success cannot be demonstrated or tested
•Cultural Materialism (Ecology) offers simpler explanations without assuming RS
Slide 9
M. Sahlins
•Human altruism is culturally learned
•Kin selection not operating in present, replaced by cultural mechanisms
•Arbitrary rules of marriage, residence and descent
•
•Kinship Systems do not reflect predictions of Hamilton’s Kin Selection Theory
–Members of residence groups more closely genetically related to individuals outside the group
–Kinship status often given to people that are genetically unrelated
•Cultural kinship systems tremendously variable and often classify distant genetic kin as close cultural kin
Slide 10
W.D. Hamilton- Kin Selection
•Kin Selection- selection for shared components of the genotype in individual related by common descent.
•Altruism will be favored by selection when
–C < rB, where
–R = the coefficient of relationship(or probability that two related individuals share same gene).
–B= benefit received from the altruist.
–C= Cost incurred by the altruist
•“I would give my life for three brothers or nine cousins” - J.B.S. Haldene
Slide 11
Problems with Sahlins critique
•Too much attention to coefficient of relatedness - benefits and costs also important
–Competition between relatives
–Certainty of paternity
•No prediction from kin selection theory that genetic kin will live together
–Mating requires formation of marriage ties
•No need that organisms be aware of genetic relatedness
Slide 12
Sociobiology refined into new approaches
•Human Behavioral Ecology (HBE)
•Evolutionary Psychology
Slide 13
Human Behavioral Ecology
•An application of Evolutionary Ecology to human behavior
•Focus on testing hypotheses that culturally patterned traits enhance fitness
•Downplays genetic determinism- “The study of evolution and adaptive design in ecological context”
Slide 14
Main Principles of Behavioral Ecology
•Natural Selection favors individuals who behave in ways that maximize their genetic contribution to
future generations.
•Which behaviors are selected depends on ecological conditions.
•Selection will design animals to behave in efficient ways.
Slide 15
Note: evolutionary ecology rarely uses group selection explanations
Ultimate causation explained in terms of individual benefit.
Slide 16
Methods of Evolutionary Ecology
•Develop hypotheses from models about what traits should natural selection favor
–Optimality
–Game theory
•Test hypotheses against observations
–Experiments
–Comparative Method
Slide 17
Examples of HBE Studies
•Chagnon 1987
Yanomamo Violence
•BlurtonJones 1986
!Kung Birth Intervals
•Borgerhoff Mulder 1990 Kipsigis Polygyny
•Hawkes et al. 1982
Ache Diet Choice
Slide 18
The Yanomamo
Napoleon Chagnon
Slide 19
Yanomamo Violence
•War
•Murder
•Fights
•Abduction
•Rape
•Female Infanticide
Slide 20
M. Harris and the Protein Deficiency Hypothesis
•Slash and Burn Farming rich in carbohydrates but poor in protein
•Game quickly depleted in vicinity of villages- strict limits on carrying capacity
•Warfare, Violence, and Infanticide check population growth- allow game to replenish in fallow fieldsboundary areas
Slide 21
The Problem is Group Selection
Why should Yanomamo kill daughters and fight wars to create niche for game?
Slide 22
Chagnon and Sociobiological Explanation
•Women (sexual jealously, seduction, rape) cited as most common cause of violence
•Villages closely related by blood and marriage (contra Sahlins)
•Disputes fall-out along genetic lines
•Men rarely kill genetic relatives
•Successful warriors have highest reproductive success