The classic thinkers in sociology and anthropology concocted many two-stage
theories of change, which are essentially like “before-and-after” snapshots of
large-scale change in society. Examples include Redfield’s theory about the
transition from “folk” to “urban” societies, Durkheim’s theory of the transition
from “mechanical” to “organic” solidarity, and Tonnies’ theory of change from
Gemeinschaft
to
Gesellschaft.
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The Causes and Patterns of Change
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These theories differ in the factors that they emphasize, but all view the
broad historical pattern of change in human societies as involving the transition
from small, undifferentiated societies with a homogeneous culture to large
societies with a high degree of structural differentiation and a heterogeneous
culture. Each, in some sense, depicts the evolution from preliterate to modern
societies. This is what social scientists
used
to refer to as
social evolution
from the
assumption that some sort of master change processes were at work in all societies
through time. But recent developments in the concept of social evolution empha-
size the accumulation of complex contingencies (for example, the generation of
novel forms and their transmission and selection over time) that is closer to the
biological meaning of the term
evolution
(Burns and Dietz, 1992; Sztompka,
1993). Our purpose here is more elementary: to summarize the major historical
and developmental changes in human societies. We will discuss Lenski’s macro-
stage theory that connects several—rather than two—stages in a historical-
developmental sequence.
The Historical Development of Human Societies.
Lenski (Lenski and
Lenski, 1982) developed a broad developmental theory of different types of societies
(hunting and gathering, pastoral and horticultural, agricultural, industrial) where the
transitions from one form to the next were caused by innovations in the technology
of economic production that produced an ever larger and more certain surplus of
food and material resources. At each stage, societies could support a larger
population and grew in complexity and internal differentiation.
Hunting and gathering societies
are the oldest type of human societies and still
exist in a few scattered places. These were small nomadic groups whose daily life
was occupied by the hunting of animals and the search for edible foods. They were
essentially subsistence economies that produce no significant economic surplus.
The plains Indians of North America, the polar Eskimos, and the Bushmen of the
Kalahari desert in southern Africa are near-contemporary hunters and gatherers.
They traveled in bands of about fifty people, following wild game and carrying vir-
tually all their possessions with them. Society was coterminous with the family and
kinship unit, though hunters and gatherers were aware of related bands and people
with whom they shared language, culture, and territory. There were few larger-scale
social units or statuses not defined by age, sex, or kinship. The division of labor was
