UNILINEAR EVOLUTIONISM: DEVELOPMENT, STAGES AND PRESENT - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The unilinear evolutionism is a theory of the end of the nineteenth century believed that all human societies evolved along a common path, from simple hunter-gatherer communities to literate civilizations.

In other words, this theory argues that human evolution ranges from the simplest to the most complex, and is also a unilinear process because it only has one development path. This would be savagery -> barbarism -> civilization.

All societies would go through the same basic sequence of these three stages, although the speed of the transition could vary. In turn, each period was separated into lower, middle and upper stages, so in total there are nine different stages within the theory.

This theory gives way to a set of reflections in which the three-age system and various anthropological theories that identify the band, the tribe and the chiefdom as successive stages can be appreciated.

The fundamental idea behind this theory is that each culture has to develop through the same process of evolution, because human beings are basically the same with the passing of the ages.

This theory is attributed to the scientist Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), who was the first who made the classification of the three primary stages. At the time this theory was developed, the Victorian era was considered the pinnacle of civilization.

Development of unilinear evolutionism

Evolutionism

Unilinear evolutionism is also known as Classical Social Evolution. It speaks mainly of human behavior almost entirely within anthropology.

He bases his theory on the fact that the various social states are aligned from the uncivilized to the most complex. It affirms that the development of humanity has been the same, regardless of the continent of origin. Human cultures evolved from simple species to more complex beings through labor differentiation.

In the early days of mankind, people lived in homogeneous groups. Then hierarchies emerged, distinguishing individuals such as kings, scholars, and workers. The increasing accumulation of knowledge differentiated people in social strata.

Evolutionists in the 19th century collected data from missionaries and merchants, organized these second-hand data, and applied the general theory to all societies. Since western societies had the most advanced technology, they placed those societies in the highest rank of civilization.

Assumptions

There were two main assumptions. One was psychic unity, a concept that suggests that human minds share similar characteristics throughout the world. This means that all people and their societies will go through the same development process.

Another underlying assumption was that Western societies are superior to other societies in the world. This assumption was based on the fact that Western societies were dominant due to their military and economic power against technologically simple and archaic societies as in the case of the aborigines.

Unilinear evolutionism

The theory of unilinear evolutionism contributed much to the anthropology of that century, since it provided the first systematic methods to think and explain human societies, being insightful with respect to the technological aspect of societies.

It is established that there is a logical progression from the use of simple tools to the development of complex technology, but this judgment does not necessarily apply to other aspects of societies, such as kinship systems, religions and parenting customs.

Stages: savagery, barbarism and civilization

These civilizations relied heavily on pre-barbaric discoveries. The use of writing or its equivalent in hieroglyphics on stone offers fair proof of the beginning of civilization. Without literary records, neither history nor civilization can be said to exist.

Savagery

Homo sapiens sapiens, Neolithic reconstruction. MUSE / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Savagery was the period of formation of the human race. During this stage a developed discourse gradually developed, and the occupation of the entire surface of the earth, although such societies were unable to organize themselves in numbers.

They were nomadic peoples who were dedicated to gathering fruits. The first inventions were the most difficult to achieve due to the weakness of the power of abstract reasoning. Every substantial element of knowledge acquired would constitute a basis for further progress, but this must have been almost imperceptible.

The achievements of savagery are not particularly remarkable in character, but they represent an incredible amount of persistent work with weak means for long periods of time before reaching a reasonable degree of integrity.

Barbarism

Ancient Egyptian painting showing wheat threshing - Source: Carlos E. Solivérez via Wikimedia Commons

Later on, most of humanity comes out of savagery and enters the lower state of barbarism. In this stage, agriculture appears and the towns become sedentary.

In turn, inventions become more direct in their relationship to primary needs. A chief is chosen from among the members of the tribe. The condition of the Asian and European tribes in this period is substantially lost.

Civilization

Broadway in 1860

For Morgan it corresponds to the development of European peoples, these being the cusp of unilinear evolution. It would be the optimal stage and, once reached this point, it only remains to study the cultural parallels.

This was done through colonialism and information collected by expedition anthropologists.

Making a fair estimate, the achievements of humanity in these three periods are of great magnitude, not only in number and intrinsic value, but also in the mental and moral development by which they were accompanied.

Theory in today's world

Contemporary anthropologists view 19th century evolutionism as too simplistic to explain the development of various societies. In general, evolutionists in the 19th century relied on racist views of human development that were popular at the time.

For example, both Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor believed that people in various societies have different levels of intelligence, leading to social differences. This view of intelligence is no longer valid in contemporary science.

Evolutionism in the 19th century was heavily attacked by historical particularists as having a highly speculative and ethnocentric value in the early 20th century.

At the same time, his materialistic approaches and cross-cultural views influenced Marxist anthropology and neo-evolutionists.

The author: Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881)

Lewis Henry Morgan was one of the main promoters of the theory of unilinear evolutionism, affirming that societies develop according to a universal order of cultural evolution.

Lewis Henry Morgan. Unknown author / Public domain

Morgan believed in a hierarchy of evolutionary development from savagery to barbarism and towards civilization.

The crucial distinction between civilized society and earlier societies is private property. He described savage societies as communist, in contrast to civilized societies, which are based on private property.

References

1. Morgan Lewis. Recovered from marxist.org.
2. Unilinear Culture Theories. Recovered from Facultycascadia.edu.
3. Classical Sociological Theory. Recovered from highered.mheducation.com.
4. Unilenar Cultural Evolution. Recovered by reference.com.
5. Unilinear Evolution. Recovered from academia.edu.