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Evolutionism EssayEssay critically discuss the Nineteenth Century theory of Evolutionism in relation to the kind growth of cultures. special development of cultures. Anthropology originated in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Missionaries, traders and travellers in Africa, North America, the pacific and elsewhere provided the first swell anthropological works. Anthropology is the holistic study of the biological, social and cultural aspects of mankind, paying particular attention to the relationships between our sensible and cultural natures and between culture and the nvironment.Anthropology is basically the study of the human species and its immediate ancestors. Early thinkers such as Hume, Smith and Montesquieu wrote about primitive institutions which they argued about amongst themselves. Their conclusions were not based on any scientific that could be tested but from principles found in their own culture. They laid the foundations for modern social anthropology believi ng that world(a) laws found in nature could be applied to human indian lodge. The thinkers were concerned with social exploitation and progress.The terminal figure evolution was opularized during the 19th century by Herbert Spencer to mean cultural evolution. Evolutionists were those who believed that the cultures and life forms being studied ar evolving toa particular form. Evolutionism is the idea that this universe is the result of random cosmic accidents, life arose spontaneously by means of chemic serve welles and all life forms be related and share a common ancestor. Evolution is a process of formation, growth and development from generation to generation. Socio- cultural evolutionism describes how cultures and societies have changed over time.In the nineteenth century Edward B. Tylor keep that culture evolved from simple to complex and all societies passed through troika basic stages of development which was originally suggested by Montesquieu. The three stages are called the lines of human progress which states that man evolved from untamedry to barbarism and finally to culture. Man became civil after discovering pottery. To account for cultural variation different societies were at different stages of evolution. Simpler passel of the day had not yet reached higher stages.Some ocieties were more evolve than others. Evolutionists believed Western Europe had evolved from a backward society to a more advanced society. Simpler contemporary societies were thought to resemble ancient societies. More advanced societies exhibited traces of primarily customs that survived in confront day cultures, this was known as survival. Pottery is an example of survival, earlier people made their cooking pots out of clay, today pots are most often made with metal because they are most durable but dishes are preferred to be made out of clay.Tylor correlates the hree levels of social evolution to types of religion savages practicing animatism, barbarians pr acticing polytheism, and civilized man practicing monotheism. Tylor includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society, Tylor believed that because of the basic similarities common to all peoples, different societies often find the same solutions to the same problems independently.Tylor as well noted that different cultural propertys may spread from atomic number 53 society to another by a simple means of diffusion hich means the borrowing by one culture of a trait belonging to another as the result of contact between the two societies. Lewis H. Morgan was one of the most influential evolutionary theorists of the nineteenth century. In his take hold Ancient Society, he divided the lines of human progress into the three stages and further divided savagery and barbarism into upper, middle and lower segments.Each stage was distinguished by technological development and connected in patterns of subsistenc e, wedding party, family, and political organization. Middle savagery was arked by the acquisition of a fish diet and the discovery of fire, upper savagery by the bow and arrow, lower barbarism by pottery, middle barbarism by animal domestication and irrigated agriculture, upper barbarism by the manufacture of iron, and civilization by the alphabet. Morgan believed family units became small and self contained as society became more developed. Johann J. Bachofen developed a theory of evolution of kinship systems which was agreed upon by Morgan.Morgan believed in the theory of primitive promiscuity, which means that human society had o sexual prohibitions and no real family structure. Primitive promiscuity nominate be divided into matriliny where descent was traced through the female only, patrilinV where descent was traces through the male only and polyandry were several husbands shred one wife. Morgan believed that family units became progressively smaller and more self-contained as human society developed. However, his postulated sequence for the evolution of the family is not supported by the enormous amount of ethnographic data that has been collected since his time.For xample, no recent society that Morgan would call savage indulges in group marriage or allows brother-sister mating. Modern social anthropologists regard these reconstructions as over amplifications of events that can never be known in detail. The efforts of proterozoic writers were only historical enquiries. At this stage it became actualise that there was no evidence which could detail the earliest stages of society and few societies developed in bestow isolation of other human cultures or outside influence. The evolutionists became unpopular by the nd of the nineteenth century.The trail of Diffusionists became popular, they brelieved tahat cultural change and progress were mainly due to borrowing because items of culture were mainly transmitted from one society to another. Despite t he errors of the nineteenth century scholars, modern social anthropology owes much to their efforts because of their interest in the social institutions of different societies and the methods used to draw conclusions. The current anthropological view concentrates mainly on the institutionalized aspects (kinship, marriage and religion) of culture taking into ccount systems of belief, values and ideas.Modern anthropology relys mainly on fieldwork which is the gathering of data which organizes, describes, analyzea and interprets to build and present that account which may be in the form of a book, article or film. The latest investigations regarding early humans is that mankind civilization through the slow gain of knowledge. Reference * Introduction to anthropology 101 (course book 2010) * Culture vs civilization http//www. edwardayne. com/culture/fallacy. html http//www. as. ua. edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/evol. htm * Wikipedia