Energy and the Evolution of Culture

Abstract

E Galaxies, stars, molecules, and atoms may be regarded as organizations of energy.' Living organisms may be looked upon as engines which operate by means of energy derived directly or indirectly from the sun. The civilizations, or cultures of mankind, also, may be regarded as a form or organization of energy. Culture is an organization of phenomena-material objects, bodily acts, ideas, and sentiments-which consists of or is dependent upon the use of symbols. Man, being the only animal capable of symbol-behavior, is the only creature to possess culture.2 Culture is a kind of behavior. And behavior, whether of man, mule, plant, comet cr molecule, may be treated as a manifestation of energy. Thus we see, on all levels of real it^,^ that phenomena lend themselves to description and interpretation in terms of energy. Cultural anthropology is that branch of natural science4 which deals with matter-andmotion, i.e., energy, phenomena in cultural form, as biology deals with them in cellular, and physics in atomic, form. The purpose of culture is to serve the needs of man. These needs are of two kinds: (1) those which'can be served or satisfied by drawing upon resources within the human organism alone. Singing, dancing, myth-making, forming clubs or associations for the sake of companionship, etc., illustrate this kind of needs and ways of satisfying them. (2) The second class of needs can be satisfied only by drawing upon the resources of the external world, outside the human organism. Man must get his food from the external world. The tools, weapons, and other materials with which man provides himself with food, shelter from the elements, protection from his enemies, must likewise come from the external world. The satisfaction of spiritual and esthetic needs By "energy" we mean "the capacity for performing work." Cf. Leslie A. White, The Symbol: The origin and basis of human behavior (Philosophy of

Cultural Naturalism

“…The unmistakable link between the way of life and the consumption of energy is of a particular significance. This has been noticed not only by Harris, and the relationship has been quantified by others in numerous contexts [9][10][11][12][13]. It is revealing that cultural trajectories intermingle with the conquest, consumption and collapse of resources that can be valued in terms of energy.…”

“…The theory asserts that the trajectories of evolving systems are impossible to predict in detail, i.e., are non-deterministic, but the inexorable quest to diminish energy gradients in the least time impinges on all activities at all levels of hierarchical nature [25][26][27]. Therefore societies, just as individuals, change by adopting mechanisms as well as generating new and abandoning old ones to facilitate energy consumption from their respective surroundings [12]. Despite the trajectories of social changes being intractable [28][29][30] the associated flows of energy always direct along paths of least action [31].…”

El sistema de la estructura: Estructuralismo y teoría de sistemas sociales

“…Entre las influencias más directas se encuentran los trabajos de Leslie A. White, quien emplea el concepto de "sistema cultural" como concepto clave de una formulación teórica neo-evolucionista, basándose en la idea de los símbolos como unidad constitutiva (White 1949:17), aunque White ya había empleado dicho concepto seis años antes, al mencionar los diferentes sistemas en los cuales opera la evolución cultural, entendida ésta como un proceso de progresiva organización (White 1943). Más tarde materialistas como Service, Sahlins y Harris también adoptarán enfoques sistémicos y estructurales.…”

Teoria na antropologia desde os anos 60

“…A ecologia cultural representou uma nova síntese e um desenvolvimento do evolucionismo materialista de Leslie White (1943White ( , 1949, Julian Steward (1953 e V. Gordon Childe (1942). Suas bases remontam a Lewis Henry Morgan e E. B. Tylor no século XIX e, no final das contas, a Marx e Engels, apesar de muitos evolucionistas da década de 1950, por razões políticas compreensíveis, não terem dado ênfase à conexão marxista.…”