Evolutionary Materialism: A Theoretical Strategy for the Study of Social Evolution

Abstract

Existing approaches to the study of social evolution are insufficient for the task of explaining the full range of social evolution from the Neolithic Revolution down to the present day. Some anthropological approaches shed considerable light on the evolution of preindustrial and precapitalist societies but are less capable of explaining the evolution of the modern world. Sociological approaches usually have the opposite result: they shed light on the evolution of the modern world but falter with respect to premodern times. This article presents a comprehensive formal-propositional theoretical approach to social evolution that combines the strengths of anthropological and sociological approaches while minimizing their weaknesses. The theoretical approach offered, referred to as evolutionary materialism, comprises propositions concerned with the directional nature of world history, the substance or content of social evolution, the principal causal factors in social evolution, the adaptational character of social evolution, the interplay of agency and structure in social evolution, the units of social evolution, the pace of social evolution, and methods of studying social evolution. The second half of the article attempts a brief logical and empirical justification of evolutionary materialism.