UCSP 12

1. LOOKING BACK AT
HUMAN
BIOCULTURAL AND
SOCIAL EVOLUTION

2. Objectives:
1. trace the origins of culture
and discuss the human
capacity for culture
2. describe the role of culture in
human adaptation

3. Springboard:
Describe how your community has changed over the years. Write the
characteristics of your community ten years ago in the “past” column
and do the same to describe your present community in the “ present”
column.
Society in the Past Society in the Present

4. Growth and Development of
Societies
- among the most interesting and
important questions that social
scientists delve into is the origin
and nature of society.

5. Anthropologists focused on the ff.
questions:
1. What is the relationship between
biological factors and cultural behavior?
2. How do biological factors influence
and cultural behavior influence human
evolution?
3. Do biological factors influence cultural
behavior and vice versa?

6. Societies are said to have
evolved as human beings learned
to adapt to their environment.
Three Types of Social Evolution
biological
cultural
technological

7. Biological Evolution refers to
the process whereby organisms
undergo various genetic and
physical changes that pave the
way for biological diversity.

8. The theory of evolution in
biology suggests that “various
types of plants, animals, and
other living things on earth have
their origins and the
distinguishable differences are
due to modifications in
successive generations.

9. Biological evolution continues
to influence how people live and
interact with other members of
society.

10. Initially, individuals gathered in
small group that eventually turned
into large societies.
They lived a nomadic lifestyle and
engaged in hunting and gathering
for their livelihood.

11. Eventually, they learned to settle
in specific areas, particularly in
areas were in close proximity to
rivers, and acquired knowledge
in producing their food through
agriculture.

13. Moreover, they underwent a
technological evolution as they
learned to create various tools and
equipment for their daily tasks such
as planting crops, domesticating
animals, and trade.

14. As people learned to lived together as a
society, shared beliefs, ideas, attitudes,
practices, knowledge and material
possessions were accumulated over
time and forged a sense of culture
among the members of society.

15. BIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION

16. Biocultural evolution
- the mutual interactive
evolution of
human biology
and culture.
- based on the concept that
biology makes culture possible

17. Cultural development
is interconnected with people’s
capacity for language,
tool- making, and
technological
innovation.

19. The evolution of Social
and Political Institutions

20. Social scientists assert that
human beings are social
beings.
People are naturally inclined to
live together and learn from
continuous interaction with one
another.

21. Three Evolutionary Stages of
Development according
anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan
Savagery
Barbarism
Civilization

22. Savage stage is the lowest stage
of development which is
exemplified by the nomadic and
hunter- gatherer lifestyle.

23. Barbaric Stage the middle stage
of development where people
began learning agricultural
techniques and the
domestication of animals.

24. Civilization stage is the highest
stage of development where
people learned writings.

25.  Morgan studies where read
and used by Friedrich Angels
in developing a theory on the
origin of private property and
the state.

26. Engels postulated that the
accumulation of private property
paved the way for the collapse of
primitive communities and the
establishment of a class- based
society.

27. - Social institutions evolve
primarily due to the struggle
between social classes over the
means of production such as
wealth and private property.
(based on collaborations with Karl Marx)

28. -Herbert Spencer applied Charles Darwin’s
principle of biological evolution to social
evolution, Individual members
within societies engage in
competition for survival
whereby the superior ones
dominate the inferior type.
The idea was seen as justification for
imperialism.

29. - The idea was heavily criticized
by nonevolutionary perspective,
that one society cannot claim to
be more “advance” than the
other societies.
Such perspective is known to be
as cultural relativism.

30. Cultural Relativism is the notion
that an individual’s attitudes,
beliefs, and ideas are based on
the cultural context of his or her
society.

31. The evolution of human beings
has given rise to the
development of social
organizations from
hunting- gathering groups
agricultural communities
and industrial societies.

33. Band- level societies or simply
bands
- small and nomadic family
- highly egalitarian and
nonhierarchical since distinctions
were based on age and sex and
division of labor was natural ( the
men hunted and the woman gathered)

34. Bands
-leadership was based on
qualities such as strength,
intelligence and
trustworthiness.

35. - While the leader exercised certain degree of
authority or influence over band members
because of his skills, he did not exercise power
to enforce rules and was not given a special
status in society.
- decisions made were usually concerned with
moving to another territory, food distribution
and the settlement of conflicts
- because of these characteristics, band- level
was not considered as a political organizations.

36.  Permanent settlements, the
inventions of tools, the
introduction of new varied
tasks and increase in
interaction and
communication were
significant changes in social
and political organizations

37. Tribe
- more formal organizations made up of
several bands
- the leader of the tribe or headman was
a more formal and established leader
- had significant influence among the
members of the tribe and was recognized
as a person of great importance

38. -the headman took advantage of
the kinship ties among tribe
members to assert his authority and
power.
- the headman also performed other
responsibilities such as resolving
conflict; overseeing activities such
as planting, harvesting and
organizing feasts and celebrations.

39. The growth of tribes allowed
them to increasingly interact
with one another, leading to the
establishment of a new political
organization, the chiefdom.

41. Chiefdom
-consists of tribes united under one leader
or chief
- within chiefdoms, the more complicated
interactions among member tribes as well
as the large populations and territories
further transformed leadership roles and
gave the chief more complex
responsibilities.