ABSTRACT

Evolutionary biologists are well satisfied that the Darwinian model of evolution has been empirically verified. But what of its application to anthropology? While most anthropologists agree that “culture” is adaptive, many leave the question there and pass on to particular problems which have no evolutionary import. This is due, in part, to the fact that these individuals have restricted their interest to things cultural, avoiding problems which link culture to biological and other parameters. Others recognize relationships between biological and cultural variables, but for one reason or another do not approach research problems from the framework of a consistent theory. One can only speculate as to why this is true, but I suspect that most anthropologists view evolutionary problems and their solutions as strings of cumulative sequences. Certainly those who have opted the field and labeled themselves as social or cultural evolutionists, be they unilineal or multilineal, have concentrated on this aspect of evolutionary outcome. Their view of evolution is diachronic and sequential. But one can pursue evolutionary problems synchronically in terms of systems analysis seeking to construct models which account for the operation of homeostatic systems as well as positive feedback in human populations. Because evolution takes place through the modification of existing structures, there need be no prerequisite for increasing complexity or strictly linear development. A so-called “regression” such as the loss or modification of a perceptual mechanism, for example, may lead to new twists and turns. Thus in the evolution of the primates, the sense of smell gives way in a large degree to the development of visual centers, and as the brain and neurocranium increase in size, the snout recedes. Evolution is a process in which organisms respond to environmental pressures rather than to some doctrine of linear development.