Sociocultural Evolution of Societies PDF

Sociocultural Evolution of Societies 1 Learning Outcomes  Trace the biological and cultural evolution of early to modern humans  Explore the significance of human material remains and artefactual evidence in interpreting cultural and social, including politic...

Sociocultural Evolution of Societies 1 Learning Outcomes  Trace the biological and cultural evolution of early to modern humans  Explore the significance of human material remains and artefactual evidence in interpreting cultural and social, including political and economic processes  Recognize national, local and specialized museums and archaeological and historical sites as venues to appreciate and reflect on the complexities of biocultural and social evolution as part of being and becoming human. 2 Society Society is a group of people living together in a particular place or at a particular time and having many things in common Sociologists say society is a group of people with common territory, interaction and culture. What does society look like?  Society looks like an object itself (sui generis or unique)  Then, if society is an object, we can examine it closely and analyze it like any other subject (We break it into pieces and explore each piece carefully)  What a biologist does to a living organism, or a geologist does to a rock, so as a sociologist does to a society.  Society becomes something scientifically weighted, measured and dissected  Four Diverse Perspectives for Social Change and Societal Evolution  Karl Marx He believed that the history of all existing society is the history of class struggle (or class conflict) or the conflict between entire classes over the distribution of a society’s wealth and power.  Four Diverse Perspectives for Social Change and Societal Evolution Max Weber The Rationalization of Society is the historical change from tradition – sentiments and beliefs passed from one generation to another to rationality – deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the cost effective means to accomplish a task as a dominant mode of human thought.  Four Diverse Perspectives for Social Change and Societal Evolution Emile Durkheim He describes society as more than individuals. Society has a life of its own – beyond our personal experiences.  Four Diverse Perspectives for Social Change and Societal Evolution Gerhard Lenski He said that sociocultural evolution is the change that occurs as a society acquires new technology. Sociocultural Evolution  It is the change that occurs as a society acquires new technology  Technology shapes other cultural patterns and that simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live simple lives  The greater amount of technology a society has within its grasp, the faster cultural change will take place  High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse division of labor. Types of Society  Hunting and Gathering Stage  During this stage, man used simple tools to hunt animals and vegetation  Family was the primary institution  Small number of families in this society  Members are nomadic  Had high level of interdependence  Men hunted animals, women gathered Types of Society  Horticultural and Pastoral Societies  Horticultural societies use hand tools to raise crops. People started to stay in one place and grow their own food.  Pastoral societies started the domestication and breeding of animals for food. Types of Society  Agricultural Societies  The invention of the plow led to the establishment of agricultural societies.  Members of these societies tend crops with an animal harnessed to a plow.  The use of animals to pull a plow eventually led to the creation of cities and formed the basic structure of modern societies. Types of Society  Industrial Societies  Use advanced sources of energy, rather than humans and animals, to run large machinery Types of Society  Post-Industrial Societies  This type of society that has developed over the past few decades, features an economy based on services and technology, not production Thank you!