LOOKING BACK AT THE

HUMAN BIOCULTURAL AND

SOCIAL EVOLUTION
Chapter 3
“Evolution in simple
terms is about
Change”
 Human Biocultural and Social
Evolution
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of
Species (1859) idea of evolution of
all species challenged the
predominant knowledge at that
time that all living creatures were
created or reproduced uniquely
with unchanging biological
attributes through time.
It became a household term
among scientist as they
underscore that species,
people, communities societies
and the like evolve because
they adapt and change with
their environment or within the
context where they are
situated
 Theory Of Evolution
Explains that we
humans had evolved,
thus actually can be
traced, from our ape-like
ancestry
 EVOLUTION

SURVIVAL OF
CHANGE ADAPT
THE FITTEST

Constant factor Major driving force

 BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL
EVOLUTION
• Bioculture – is defined as the
relationship between human
biology and culture. Along the
path of the biological
evolution of a man, culture is
also changing.
• Shows the changes occurring in
the development of human
beings as external factors like
how environmental influences
contribute to the way human
adapt to their surroundings.
Hominid ancestors of modern humans
 CULTURAL AND
SOCIOPOLITICAL
EVOLUTION
Gerhard Lenski’s Five types of societies

HUNTING AND HORTICULTURAL AND

GATHERING PASTORAL SOCIETIES

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETIES SOCIETIES

POST-INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETIES
 Hunting and Gathering Society
(5 million years ago)
Also called “Foraging society”
because survival is anchored on
searching and gathering food
from nature.
People used their basic instinct
and skills as a way to acquire food
and shelter.
Hunting and gathering society
 Neolithic age- Horticultural and
Pastoral Society(10,000-5,000 BCE)
People discovered and cultivated the
process of raising crops using handmade
tools like hoe and stick for digging
through soil and animal for
domestication.
Horticulture is derived from the Latin
word Hortus garden and colere to
cultivate
The formation of gardens and crop fields
gave the inhabitants stable means of
food production through farming. Food
production become easier and more
accessible to the dwellers of the society
 Neolithic revolution
Agricultural Society
Started the development of
permanent settlements and the
establishment of social classes and
eventually the rise of civilizations.
Storage of food and distribution
become apparent to supply the
increasing number of civilization
The use of materials like metals,
wheels, and irrigation system led
to the ploughing of fertile soils in
massive proportion.
Enhance the production of food
 Early Civilization and the Rise of the
State
Civilization sprouted near the river.
Defined as an organized political
community under the management of
a single government.
Settlements grew to become
complex territories and others as
ancient empires that provided
the flourishing and development
of writing system, wheels and
transportation, great
architectural designs, wealth and
status, and later in the
establishments of state
Democratization (around 500 BCE)
Originated from the city-states of
ancient Greece.
Stands for government of the
people, by the people and for the
people – Abraham Lincoln
Constitutional rules and
regulations are used to guide
how the government will
function.
The rule of the majority is based
on the due process of the law and
the recognition of the right of
each individual
 Pillars of Democracy
1. Sovereignty of the people
2. Government based upon consent of
the government
3. Majority rule
4. Minority rights
5. Guarantee of basic human rights
6. Free and fair elections
7. Equality before the law
8. Due process of law
9. Constitutional limits on government
10.Social economic and political
pluralism
11.Values of tolerance pragmatism,
cooperation and compromise
 Industrial Society
The invention of steam machine was
an important turning point in the
transition from agricultural to
industrial society
Factories rise to prominence as iconic
structures
Individual skills and talents were very
important to operate large machines.
Embraced technological
functions
Changing urban landscapes
connected by transportation and
communication
Goods and commodities
dominate the practice and
discourse of modernization
 Industrial
 Developed in Europe 250 years ago as
energy was harnessed to drive machinery
 Provides modern convenience and advance
communication and technology
 Moves work from home to factory
 Raises living standard
 Raised the
standard
of living
Labored in
factories were
Gradually low/dangerous
improved in and monotonous
19th century / little job
security
Industrial
Revolution

Greater volume Crafts

and variety of
Factory-
people were
produced replaced by
goods machine
 Post Industrial Society
20th century marked the beginning of
information revolution
Accessibility are faster and yield
higher productivity
Globalization, network, society, global
village and service economy
 Marshall McLuhan
One global village
Unity in diversity (APEC, EU, ASEAN)
 Manuel Castell
Network society has been criticized develop
and developing countries
Neoliberal Capitalism become global in scope
- it means that the control of economic
forces is in the hands of private sector and
multinational companies .
- less intervention of the state
- developing countries are treated as a
dumping sites
 Daniel Bell

• Coined the term post- industrial

society in 1973
• He mentions the following
characteristics of our current era.
 Characteristics of Current Era
There is a shift from producing
goods to creating services.
Production of goods declines while
the production of services increases.
Direct manufactures of goods are
few.
Blue-collar, manual labor jobs are
replaced with professional and
technical jobs.
 Biological Evolution
―Is the change inherited over
successive generation in
population of organism.
―Defined as any genetic change in
a population that is inherited
over several generations.
 Two types of Evolution

• Small – scale evolution – changes

in a population from one
generation to the next.
• Large-scale evolution – decent of
different species from a common
ancestor over many generations.
 Theory of Biological
Evolution
 Parents pass traits to their
offspring (heredity)
Individuals within a
population vary in those
treats (variation).
Some individuals have
traits that are better
adapted to particular
circumstances and
conditions than
other.(fitness)
 What is Biological Evolution?
Successive genetic changes in a population
over many generation.
New species result as genetic characteristics
are modified due to:
Mutation: change in DNA
Isolation: events that separate populations
New allele combination: results in variety
within populations.
Environment: constant changing
Reproduction: sexual/ asexual, rates.
 Cultural Evolution

• is the change of culture over time

• is the idea that human cultural
change––that is, changes in
socially transmitted beliefs,
knowledge, customs, skills,
attitudes, and languages
Edward Tylor believed that cultures move
through three definite stages of
progression, savagery, barbarism, and
civilization. Sort of like a man climbing up a
ladder, he asserted all societies climb up
these three stages of cultural evolution;
some are just simply further along in the
climb than others.
civilization
barbarism
savagery
 civilization
barbarism
savagery
the condition absence of the stage of
of being culture and human social
and cultural
primitive or civilization
development
uncivilized and
organization
that is
considered
most advanced
 According to his historical
materialism approach, culture
evolved due to the necessity to
produce in order to survive.
Stating it very simply, culture
progressed as populations
increased and thus, material
needs increased.
 According to Karl Marx, with the
increase of needs, man began
entering into social relationships with
one another. However, these
relationships weren't random,
existing in a vacuum. Instead, they
were based on division of labor, the
assigning of different tasks of the
manufacturing process to different
people in order to improve efficiency
and productivity.
Three modes of production by Karl Marx
primitive communism or group
ownership.
 feudalism or power based on land
ownership.
Capitalism the free market economy.
 Social Evolution

sometimes referred to as
Unilineal Evolution,. This theory
claims that societies develop
according to one universal order
of cultural evolution
 Categories of Social Evolution
Mutually beneficial – a behavior that increases
the direct fitness of both the actor and the
recipient
Selfish – a behavior that increases the direct
fitness of the actor, but the recipient suffers a
loss
Altruistic – a behavior that increases the direct
fitness of the recipient, but the actor may suffer
a loss
Spiteful – a behavior that decreases the direct
fitness of both the actor and the recipient