Cultural Ecology and Neo-Evolutionary Thought

Julian Steward Studied anthropology at Berkley under A.L. Kroeber. He first started in archeology and then moved to ethnography and worked with the Shoshoni, Pueblo, and later the Carrier Indians in British Columbia. He investigated the parallel developmental sequences in the evolution of civilizations in the New and Old Worlds. He proposed that cultures in similar [...]

Julian Steward – “The Patrilineal Band”

All quotes are taken from the reading unless otherwise noted. After “the ‘mid-century collapse’ of Historical Particularism” a resurrection of the dearly departed “cross-cultural comparison” or evolutionary perspectives on culture, began to crop up. A good example of this is the following reading, where the author states that societies that occur in similar environments develop [...]

According to White….(By Jackie)

Hello Everyone! I love our discussion in class today, everyone had at least something to say about our (Ben and I) presentation of Leslie White’s “Energy and the Evolution of Culture”. I want to bring up another topic to continue our discussion from class. According to White, “…by means of agriculture man was able to [...]

Cultural Ecology and Neo-Evolutionary Thought

What is the significance of the “Cultural Ecology and Neo-Evolutionary Thought” tradition? How was it “neo-evolutionary”? -Julian Steward, “The Patrilineal Band” (1955) -Leslie White, “Energy and the Evolution of Culture” (1943) -George P. Murdock, “Family Stability in Non-European Cultures” (1950)