SOCIO-CULTURAL EVOLUTION

• Lenski’s ecological-evolutionary theory: states that “societies evolve in response to changes in their natural and social environments.”
• Innovation: The first involves adding new elements such as technologies, social practices, institutions, or beliefs to the system
• Hunting-and-gathering - most basic societies. People are nomadic (no-permanent settlement) who just rely on foraging (picking up plant-based food) and animal hunting for survival.
• Horticultural - shift of food gathering method to plant-domestication. Discovery early farming methods on a small-scale level.

  • Simple - shifting to consuming plants as food
  • Advanced -Better tools in planting crops (bronze and copper)
  • 2.1 Pastoral -Animal domestication happening alongside plant domestication
• Agrarian

  • Simple agricultural- communities of small sizes sprung up, encouraged by permanent settlement due to the availability of food.
  • Advanced agricultural- Massive plantations near fertile river-valleys turned into powerful political entities due to surplus in the agricultural produce.
• Industrial-marked the birth of a modern world as machines began replacing manual labor as the main driving force of the economy.
• Post industrial (Virtual)-economy shifts from producing and providing goods and products to one that mainly offers services. Here technology, information, and services are more important than manufacturing actual goods.