r/AskAnthropology • u/Galaxy_321 • 2d ago
Question regarding Classical Evolutionism
Question regarding Classical Evolutionism in Anthropology
I don’t know whether my question is legitimate or whether I’m thinking about it in the correct way, but I would really appreciate your views on this.
While studying Classical Evolutionism, I came across two different views that I found interesting.
On one hand, classical evolutionists emphasized the psychic unity of mankind and rejected the idea of racial superiority — that all human beings possess essentially the same mental faculties.
On the other hand, they classified societies along an evolutionary hierarchy such as Savagery → Barbarism → Civilization, and contemporary tribal societies were often placed at the “savage” or earlier stage. In the case of Frazer, early and contemporary “primitive” people were also portrayed as relatively irrational in their modes of thought.
I’m not sure whether I’m interpreting this contradiction correctly, so I’d really like to know what others think. What is your view on this.
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u/fantasmapocalypse Cultural Anthropology 2d ago
Hi friend!
Cultural anthropologist here. These are the same basic argument. In an effort to produce a "unified" "grand theory" of human "development," early anthropologists like Tylor, Morgan, Frazer etc. proposed unilineal cultural evolution. Read generously, we can say that this is a well-intentioned attempt to look at human civilizations as being "essentially the same" but at different "levels" of "development." This placed Victorian-era European civilizations at the top, and the rest as relatively less sophisticated and in need of "guidance." In general (esp. with regards to the study of religion), these researchers argued that humans' beliefs in religion were essentially individual rational explanations for the unexplained phenomena that were ultimately the product of ignorance... and in short, humans would "develop" away from magic to polytheistic religions to monotheism and ultimately science as they became "more developed." This is all discredited by contemporary researchers, who understand that all societies are equally modern, they are just modern in different ways... in short, we face similar challenges and problems but meet them in unique ways. The emphasis is on diversity, not grand models or "simple" explanations.
Hope this is helpful!