To what extent has the way human societies have evolved been inevitable?

Question

To what extent has the way human societies have evolved been inevitable?

Answer 1

We are looking back at the process of social development, and because our mind is designed to find patterns, we see this development as a linear progression.

However, every action and reaction is unpredictable.  The consequences of someone dying or surviving makes a difference to those around them, but we can never know enough to understand what the catalyst to change has been.

All we can say is that it is inevitable that societies change.  We can't predict anything by looking back at what we think has caused changes in the past.

Answer 2

There are so many variables that I dont think  it was inevitable that we have evolved to our present day staus.

However, since the dawn of modern technology evolution can be mapped with some little certainty for the future.

Answer 3

Inevitable, as all possibilities are manifest. If not in this world, the next.

Answer 4

let's hear it for the monkeys or apes! they were just a little smarter and it was natural the smarter ones were rewarded and multiplied. once they were a few steps ahead, they continued to "prosper."

once tools proved superior to teeth, it was inevitable. the wolves, sharks, etc. have no chance of catching up. but do we have much chance of advancing, that is, in evolutionary terms? social institutions block the way, it seems.

Answer 5

They have developed and improved their technologies because they are rational animals which have the capability of solving problems using tools. And have created villages, towns, and cities or in other words have improved upon their group living areas because they are social animals who depend on eachother

Answer 6

I think if you're looking at this question from the viewpoint of a 19th century evolutionist you would certainly say that all civilizations are increasing in their types of technology and becoming more industrialized.  You can use Tylor and Morgan's idea of psychic unity and the fact that they believed that there is only a certain number of ways to solve problems and so certain cultures will end up having similar features and going through the same changes.

But then if you look at this question fro the point of say a Boasian anthropologist, then there is no right answer because of cultural relativism.  They would say that every culture is evolving and progressing in a unique way depending on their own history.  They believe that making a generalization about how cultures evolve is impossible because every culture's history is different and therefore every culture is going somewhere different and we can't guess where since there is no other culture in existence to go through the same line of evolution.  

I guess the best way to have this question answered is from what anthropological viewpoint you want to look it and how you define society and its evolution.

Answer 7

Read Jared Diamonds 2 books

1) the Rise and fall of the third Chimpanzee

2) Guns, Germs and Steel.

Both will explain all, and give you real insight.

Answer 8

For one thing, similar environments can cause human groups to come up with the same sorts of adaptions. Transhumant pastoralism where adjacent climatic regions allow people to move their herds back and forth with the seasons.

Wherever agriculture was invented it was followed by urban civilizations and rise of the state, probably because it allowed for development of property and accumulation of surpluses.

Then there is tendency for agricultural societies to displace hunting and gather ones, again because they can command control over much larger and more densely settled populations.

All societies seem to have objectified themselves in terms of concept of supernatural.

On the other hand, some things are puzzling, for example, why did urban civilizations in the old world have the wheel whereas ones in the new world did not, except in children's toys?

People tend to present their histories as inevitable or supernaturally determined, for example the expansion of the United States is presented as manifest destiny. But given slightly different historical conditions, there could have been a French midwest, Spanish Florida and California, and Russian Columbia in the Northwest.