Sociocultural Evolution and Cultural Adaptation

Social Science I Second Sem., SY 2010-2011 UP Visayas

Adaptation
The process by which man makes effective use for productive ends of the energy potential in his habitat Energy : muscular, draft animals, plows, steam, electricity [Extrapersonal Energy] Important factor : the extent to which extrapersonal energy replaces muscular energy

Cultural Adaptation
A population of organisms is considered to have achieved an effective relationship with a habitat to be ADAPTED TO THAT HABITAT if it has been able to perpetuate its form of life

Sociocultural Evolution
Mans adaptation has increasingly freed him from the limitations of his habitat, leading to SOCIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION
Harnessing effective sources of energy in his habitat Shaping institutions to meet the demands of energy systems

Sociocultural Evolution
The process of change that results from a societys gaining new information, particularly technology.

Diffusion and Borrowing

The spread of cultural element (material and otherwise) from one group to another Approximately 80 percent or more of the elements in any culture may have been borrowed from others

Diffusion and Borrowing

Premodern times: Contact was always personal (individuals from different groups introduced each other to new ways). Modern times: diffusion is always impersonal.

Language
Language
A body of words and the system for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition

Language
Pidgin
an auxiliary language that arises when speakers of mutually unintelligible languages are in close contact.
Example of Kamtok, a Cameroon Pidgin English from west central Africa: Den i bin lef dat ples, an i bin kam fo i on kontri, an i pipu bin folo i. An i bin di tich di pipu fo insai di Jew dem God haus... (Mark 6: 1-2) (Then he left that place, and he came into his own country and his people followed him. And he was teaching the people inside the synagogue...).

Extent of Cultural Adaptation

1. Nature of mans diet over an annual period
An abrupt shift in diet from one season to another connotes less freedom over the limitations set by the environment

2. Ability of the members of a group to make substitutions in their diet

Nomadic hunters and gatherers vs. people in industrial societies

Extent of Cultural Adaptation

Extent of Cultural Adaptation

3. Direct correspondence between reliance on domesticates and peoples freedom from the limitations of their habitats
In industrial societies, domesticated plants and animals make up most of mans diet

Extent of Cultural Adaptation

4. Knowledge about cause and effect in nature (e.g., leading to transformations in foodfood -producing milieu)

Extent of Cultural Adaptation

5. The greater the mastery over nature, the smaller the element of chance in food production and social relationships.

Extent of Cultural Adaptation

6. Increasing freedom from seasonal variation of his cultural behavior
Seasonal cultures

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Important note:
How is man shaped by the shapes he imposes on his habitats?

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Hunting and gathering (or foraging)

First level of cultural adaptation achieved by man A technique of extracting a livelihood from the environment by an almost exclusive reliance on muscular energy Typically nomadic Small bands: one to five families

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Hunting and gathering tools (or foraging)

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Hunting and gathering (or foraging)

The family obtains and distributes food, protects its members, and teaches the children Cooperation and sharing Specialization: age and sex
Young and old contribute what they can Women: gather vegetation (more reliable food source) Men: hunt

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Hunting and gathering (or foraging)

Few formal leaders : shaman spiritual leader Various degrees of nomadism and sedentism
The scantier the natural supply of food, the smaller the bands and the greater their nomadism

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Hunting and gathering (or foraging)

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Horticulture

(ten to twelve thousand years ago)

A technology in which a people plant seeds, roots, or tubers, and harvest the production, using a hoe or digging stick as their principal means of production Horticulturists rely primarily on muscular energy
They are responsible for the presence of the food in which they subsist

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Horticulture Practice ancestor worship and conceive of God as Creator Swidden or slash-and-burn cultivation
Rapid exhaustion of soil Requires a shift of cultivated plots every few years

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Stages of Horticultural Strategy 1. Domesticated plants make up a very small part (less than ten percent) of the groups diet. 2. Cultigens constitute at least one-third of the groups diet.

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Stages of Horticultural Strategy (contd) 3. Cultigens constitute at least twotwo-thirds of the groups diet. 4. Cultigens constitute at least 85% of the groups diet.

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Pastoralism
A technology devoted to gaining a livelihood from the care of large herds of domesticated animals
Sustenance from the herds (milk, meat, blood) Use of domesticated animals as instruments of production

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Pastoralism

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Pastoralism

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Pastoralism
Many pastoralists also practice a measure of horticulture (horticultural-pastoral societies) Pastoralists rely on kinship relations as heavily as do horticulturists Nomadic

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Pastoralism
Expanding productive technology also intensifies social inequality : some families produce more food than others Forging alliances with other elite families Rudimentary government backed by military force

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Agriculture

Cultural activities associated with planting, herding, and processing domesticated species The technology of large-scale farming using plows harnessed to animals, or eventually, mechanical tractors Large food surpluses allowed agrarian societies to expand (area and population)

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Agriculture

Increase in production : greater specialization Specialization made the earlier barter system obsolete and prompted the invention of money as a common standard of exchange Agrarian societies exhibit dramatic social inequalities : peasants and slaves Propelled men into a position of social dominance

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Agriculture

Religion reinforced the power of agricultural elites : doctrines typically propound the idea that people are morally obligated to perform whatever tasks correspond to their place in the social order

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Why did domestication and agriculture occur?

Environmental Determinism - explanation of cultural behavior that sees human actions as primarily responsive to environmental circumstances

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Why did domestication and agriculture occur?

Demographic Explanation
Population growth Packing Model by Binford (1983) at the end of the Pleistocene, people permanently came to occupy the temperate middle latitudes : human breeding ground : rapid increase in population density

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Why did domestication and agriculture occur?

Marginal Zone Hypothesis
The expansion of a growing population beyond its original territory may have stimulated an agricultural effort.

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Why did domestication and agriculture occur?

Marginal Zone Hypothesis
People moved to marginal zones (tension zones) on the edges of optimal areas and artificially reproduced the cereals and other plants from their homeland.

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Industrialism

Is technology that powers sophisticated machinery with advanced sources of energy Industrial Revolution (1750s), mills and factories relied on flowing waters and then steam to power ever-larger and more efficient machinery 19th century: railroads, steamships, sky scrapers

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Industrialism

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Industrialism

20th century: automobiles, electricity Information Revolution because of computers Work has changed
Factories and workplaces in centralized areas Affected kinship ties, concept of the family, poverty

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Industrialism

20th century: automobiles

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Postindustrialism

By Daniel Bell (1973) Technology that supports an informationbased economy
Production focuses on computers and other electronic devices that create, process, store and apply information People in postindustrial societies work on honing information-based skills for work involving computers and other forms of high-technology communication

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations

Postindustrialism
Cultural lag the process by which some cultural elements change faster than others (technology and information vis--vis legal notions about properties are still based on tangible things)

A Taxonomy of Cultural Adaptations Technology and Human Life

Increase in productivity, reduction in infectious diseases, brings about a betterment in human life But Poverty, International warfare: Nuclear weapons, each stage in the sociocultural evolution has introduced more powerful sources of energy and accelerated human beings appetite for the earths resources at a rate even faster than the population is growing

Type of Society

Historical Period

Productive Population Technology Size

Twenty-five to forty people

Hunting and Gathering Societies

Only type of society Primitive weapons until about 10,000 years ago; still common several centuries ago; the few examples remaining today are threatened with extinction From about 10,000 years ago with decreasing numbers after about 3,000 B.C. Horticultural societies use hand tools for cultivating plants; pastoral societies are based on the domestication of animals

Horticultural and Pastoral Societies

Settlement of several hundred people, interconnected through trading ties to form societies of several thousand people

Type of Society

Historical Period

Productive Population Technology Size

Agrarian Societies Industrial Societies PostPostIndustrial Societies

From about 5,000 years Animal-drawn plow Millions of people ago, with large but decreasing numbers today From about 1750 to the Advanced sources present of energy; mechanized production Emerging in recent decades Computers that support an information-based economy Millions of people

Millions of people

Type of Society

Settlement Pattern
Nomadic

Social Examples Organization

Family-centered; specialization limited to age and sex; little social inequality Pygmies of central Africa, Kung of the Kalahari; Aborigines of Australia; Batek and Semai of Malaysia Middle Eastern societies about 5,000 B.C. Various societies today in New Guinea and other Pacific islands Yanomamo today in South America

Hunting and Gathering Societies

Horticultural and Pastoral Societies

Horticulturalists form relatively small permanent settlements; pastoralists and nomadic

Family-centered; religious system begins to develop; moderate specialization; increased social inequality

Type of Society

Settlement Pattern
Cities become common, though they generally contain only a small proportion of the population

Social Examples Organization

Family loses significance as distinctive religious, political and economic system emerge; extensive specialization; increased social inequality Egypt during construction of the Great Pyramids Medieval Europe Numerous nonindustrial societies of the world today

Agrarian Societies

Type of Society

Settlement Pattern
Cities contain most of the population

Social Examples Organization

Distinct religious, political, economic, educational, and family systems; highly specialized; marked social inequality persists, diminishing somewhat over time Most societies today in Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan; these societies generate most of the worlds industrial production Industrial societies noted above are now entering postindustrial stage

Industrial Societies

PostPostindustrial Societies

Population remains concentrated in cities

Similar to industrial societies with information processing and other service work gradually replacing industrial production