社会文化演化(sociocultural evolution)
文化与社会形态由简单到复杂的发展。欧洲人曾试着解释为何有各种不同的「原初」（primitive）社会存在着。有些人相信这些社会代表以色列的遗失部落；有些人则认为这些原初人类是在亚当（Adam）时代就从原始的野蛮（barbarous）状态、或更低等的蛮荒（savage）状态退化而成；相对的，欧洲社会则被当作是最高等状态的缩影，也就是「文明」（civilization）。在19世纪晚期，泰勒（Edward Burnett Tylor）、摩根（Lewis Henry Morgan）提出非直线演化论，认为文化体系的分类标准，必须要看他们的整体人文精神成长体系之程度，并检视这个成长机制的型态。这种演化论的看法後来受到挑战，尤其是包亚士（Franz Boas）提出的「文化史」分析取向，他们到初民社会密集进行田野工作（fieldwork），以确认真实的文化和历史过程，而不只是凭空想像成长阶段。不过，怀特（Leslie White）、史都华（Julian Steward）等人，则试图重建社会文化演化论的一些论点，并提出一组前进式范畴（progression ranging），部群（bands）、部落（tribes）在一端，部族（chiefdoms）和国家（states）则在另一端。另外，晚近则有更多人类学家采用一般化体系研究，将文化视为紧急生成体系来检视。至於其他学者则继续驳斥演化论思想，并以历史偶连性（historical contingencies）、异文化接触（contacts with other cultures）以及文化符号体系操作（operation of cultural symbol systems）等论点来取代之。
English version：
sociocultural evolution
Development of culture and society from simple to complex forms. Europeans had sought to explain the existence of various "primitive" societies, some believing that such societies represented the lost tribes of Israel, others speculating that primitive peoples had degenerated since the time of Adam from an originally "barbarous" to an even lowlier "savage" state. European society was taken to epitomize the highest state of existence, "civilization". In the late 19th century, Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan elaborated the theory of unilinear evolution, specifying criteria for categorizing cultures according to their standing within a fixed system of growth of humanity as a whole and examining the modes and mechanisms of this growth. A widespread reaction followed; Franz Boas introduced the "culture history" approach, which concentrated on fieldwork among native peoples to identify actual cultural and historical processes rather than speculative stages of growth. Leslie White, Julian Steward, and others sought to revive aspects of sociocultural evolutionism, positing a progression ranging from bands and tribes at one end to chiefdoms and states at the other. More recently some anthropologists have adopted a general systems approach, examining cultures as emergent systems. Others continue to reject evolutionary thinking and look instead at historical contingencies, contacts with other cultures, and the operation of cultural symbol systems. See also primitive culture, social Darwinism.