The formulation of modern archaeological and anthropological theory could be
said to have began with Darwin's theory of evolution. Since then, many have investigated
and contributed to cultural theory and the theory itself has developed into a multi-faceted formula, as archaeology is a multi-disciplinary practice. One very important
contributor to that modern archaeological array is the American archaeologist and
anthropologist Julian Haynes Steward. His role in 20th century archaeology was that
of a prudent and distinctive new thinker, and his ideas of environmentally affected cultural
development and evolution have been of great value and use to the archeological community.
Born January 31, 1902, Steward would lead the life of a scholar, beginning his
academic career at Cornell University, where he would receive his B.A. in anthropology
in 1925. He then went on to the University of California at Berkeley, where he first gained interest in the effects of environment on culture and began his cultural ecology
theory. After receiving his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1929, Steward went on to work
at several universities, joining the American Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian
Institution in 1935. In 1938 he became the senior anthropologist and in 1943 the
director of the Institute of Social Anthropology until 1946.
Steward's major contribution was his approach to the development and changes
of culture. He called it the theory of cultural ecology and it gave archaeology
a feasible explanation for long-term developments in a society. It was defined by
him as "the study of the processes by which a society adapts to its environment " (1968), and
it explained how cultures and its institutions should be analyzed as environmental
adaptations. The environment he referred to encompassed a broad field of variables,
including such aspects as terrain, surrounding materials, and other social groups. Steward
also referred to a culture's "core", which is the combination of cultural features
that intercede humans and environment. These features are vital for subsistence
and basic economy and might include aspects such as political systems, subsistence practices,
and technology. According to the theory, it is the dynamic relationship between
that environment and culture core which explains the evolution of a society. Cultural ecology examines that relationship and attempts to "determine whether similar adjustments
occur in similar environments" (Steward 1959).
Steward's cultural ecology is directly related to the cultural evolution, which
leads us to another of his great intellectual contributions, multi-linear evolution.
This theory of cultural development explained how cultures did not each follow a
fixed uniform sequence of evolution. Rather each social group moves along its own evolutionary
path according to the group's core features and environment. This notion was another
of Steward's new and revealing ideas and has provided some eye-opening possibilities to the archaeological / anthropological world.
In arriving at his cultural ecological conclusion, Steward found the cause of
sociocultural phenomena that the anthropological world had been searching for since
the 1800's. Steward's was a material oriented explanation, one of the first in a
meaning oriented anthropological world. This distinction between material approach and meaning
approach divides archaeologists and archaeological theory today.
What did Steward's new theories on cultural ecology and multi linear evolution
mean for the archaeological world? Well, his theories actually accelerated a somewhat
sluggish archaeological community during the 1940's. Until then archeology was seen
as a discipline incapable of achieving its own niche in the scientific community.
In 1946, Steward inspirited Gordon Willey to investigate the settlement pattern
consideration of the Viru Valley. Little did they know that this would spur a new
branch of archaeology called settlement archaeology. Steward also influenced the minds and
actions of archaeologists such as Robert Braidwood, William T. Sanders, Robert McCormick
Adams, and Karl Butzer. Furthermore, much of the New Archaeology of the 1960's had
found roots in cultural ecology. Ecological approaches to archaeology dominated from
the 1950's to the 80's, although much of the theory had become more ecological than
cultural, as Steward emphasized.
Steward died in 1972. Today's archaeology sees much of the settlement pattern and subsistence investigations
started by Steward's cultural ecology method. This focus was brought about by his
pointing out of those cultural elements most related to environmental factors, his culture "core". Since he introduced them into archaeology, environmental and ecological
factors have become an essential part of archaeological investigation. Even those
archaeologists and anthropologists who criticize Steward's work or don't consider
themselves cultural ecologists are greatly influenced by his establishment. Yes,
the influence of this archaeological innovator should be present for much more archaeology
to come.
Bibliography
1. Steward, Julian H. The Theory of Cultural Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1955.
2. Kohl, Philip L. "Materialist Approaches in Prehistory." Annual Review of Anthropology, 10:89-118. 1981.
3. Steward, Julian H. "The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology." Readings in Anthropology , Vol. 2, pp.81-95. ed. Crowell, New York, 1959.
4. Steward, Julian H. "Cultural Ecology." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 4, pp.337-344. ed. Macmillan, New York, 1968.
5. Steward, Julian H. Evolution and Ecology: Essays on Social Transformation.
eds. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1977.
email: R. Laurenzo