| ECOLOGY AND SOCIO-CULTURAL EVOLUTION Cultures are first and foremost means of adapting to physical environments, and physical environments shape (enable and constrain) cultural development. Adaptation changes over time as humans alter environments. Three important concepts: division of labor, surplus wealth, structural complexity. (division of labor and surplus wealth are reciprocally related). Hunting and Gathering Societies -- (all human societies until about 10,000 years ago) subsistence production, little division of labor, much land to support few people, little surplus, simple social structure centered around kinship, equality and sharing necessary. Very little complex cultural development. Much like bands of primates. A lot of leisure but little control over environment. Pastoral and Horticultural Societies - (emerged about 10-12,000 years ago) Some hunting and gathering groups set off in two new directions of development. Some learned how to domesticate animals they had hunted before (Pastoral societies) and came to depend on herding for subsistence. Others learned how to domesticate plants that they had gathered before (Horticultural societies), came to depend on crops for subsistence. The main determinant of which direction they developed (or whether they developed) at all was their environment. The key feature of both is that for the first time surplus wealth became possible. Family still main institution. Similarities between the two -- steady food supply and surplus (size of herds can be increased, part of crop can be stored); population can grow larger; surplus can be traded with other groups and/or war over surpluses occur and slavery becomes possible; more powerful families gain control of surplus, become chieftains. Two differences - Pastoral nomadic, moved grazing land; Horticultural relatively stable, slash and burn. Pastoral religions peaceful (shepherd to flock), Horticultural religions have mean alien gods. Agricultural Societes - (emerged about 6,000 years ago, "neolithic revolution") Resulted from contact between Past. and Hort. and discovery of the plow. Continuous cultivation with animal power and plow, large fields, higher output, larger surplus, larger populations, permanent settlements/ towns/ small cities. Division of labor expands as productivity frees people from agri. work - support services develop (e.g., blacksmith, traders, etc.) and powerful clans stabilize control over surplus. Conquest, slavery, and "ownership" of resources --- Powerful clans use surplus to gain more power and surplus. (Different histories in different parts of the world - ours in Europe). Between 1000 and 1600, European nations were unified, trade expanded followed by colonization all over the world, development based on agricultural technology. Industrial Societies - (began rapid development with industrial revolution in England in 1600's) Resulted from application of scientific knowledge first to agriculture and then to manufacturing (crop rotation, steam power, specialized labor, spinning wheel). Massive increases in productivity, surplus, population, settlement size, and proportion freed from agricultural labor. Increased division of labor increased output, increased output allowed more expansion of division of labor (spiral effect). Erosion of the family/kinship as the building block of social organization and continuing erosion of traditional (agriculture-based) institutions. Post Industrial Societies - (Since end of World War II) Socialism, automation & advanced technology, decrease in industrial jobs, growth of service economy, split in the service sector, general decline of jobs. |