The Evolution of Social Organization

Abstract

This paper asserts that while culture does change, it does not evolve. In anthropology the explanation for the evolution of the nonbiological aspects of the human condition has relied on the paradigm of cultural evolution. This paper argues that non-biological evolution is better explained in terms of the evolution of social organization. It also rejects the materialist bias that dominates the explanations for why and how evolution takes place. Instead it argues that human agents play a larger role in evolution than has been acknowledged. The paper concludes with a model identified as the ‘genetic pulse’ that demonstrates the power of non-materialist forces in evolution and the means of acquiring the ethnographic data necessary to demonstrate the evolution of social organization.

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