2.1 Theory of Cultural Evolution

Claim: culture develops through stages, from simple to complex, by processes analogous to biological evolution — humankind as one tree climbing.Exponents: the Victorian trio — E.B. Tylor (culture's evolution from savagery through barbarism to civilization; religion's arc from animism to science), Lewis Henry Morgan (the fixed ladder: savagery → barbarism → civilization, marked by technology — fire, pottery, iron; Ancient Society — kinship's evolution from promiscuity through matrilineal to patrilineal; both Marx and Engels' source — your Political Thoughts course's indebtedness), James Frazer (magic → religion → science).Nepal application: the old ethnographic habit of ranking hill societies by "development stage" (the hunter-gatherer Raute described as "survivals") was evolutionism's local career — and its cautionary tale.Critique (the demolition):Boas — cultures are not rungs on one ladder but historicallyparticular growths; the ladder smuggled ethnocentrism and racism (Europe's present as everyone's destiny); Morgan's stages were speculation. What survives: the sober core — cultures do change technologically and structurally over time (Sociology Unit 5's social change), and neoevolutionism (White, Steward's multilinear evolution) rebuilt the approach without the ladder's arrogance.