Steven K. Sanderson*s Evolutionary Materialism

By Frank W. Elwell
This presentation is based on the theories of Steven K.
Sanderson as presented in his books listed in the
bibliography. A more complete summary of
Sanderson’s theories (as well as the theories of other
macro-theorists) can be found in Macrosociology: The
Study of Sociocultural Systems, by Frank W. Elwell. If
you would like to receive a .pdf file of the chapter
on Sanderson please write me at [email protected]
and put Sanderson.pdf in the subject line.
There are two characteristics about Stephen K.
Sanderson (b. 1945) and his evolutionary materialism
that I wish to emphasize in this brief presentation.
The first is that Sanderson is a synthesizer. While all
theorists borrow from those who preceded them to
some extent, Sanderson attempts to construct a
coherent and consistent theory of social evolution by
blending elements of two distinct theoretical traditions:
ecological-evolutionary theory, particularly from
Gerhard Lenski and Marvin Harris, and the worldsystems perspective of Immanuel Wallerstein.
So taken was Sanderson with the works of these men
that he dedicated a major book, Social
Transformations (1992 & 1999), to the three. In
explaining the dedication, Sanderson notes that Lenski
was the first to point him in the direction of a material
evolutionary approach. Harris then showed him how to
systematically develop and elaborate this approach.
Finally, Sanderson reports, Wallerstein added the
important context of a capitalist world-system in
understanding sociocultural evolution in the modern
world (Sanderson 1999, xi).
The second characteristic of Sanderson’s work that I wish
to note in this brief presentation is the heavy reliance that
Sanderson places on anthropological, historical, and
sociological data in testing his theoretical propositions.
What I try to capture in these pages is a basic outline of
Sanderson’s evolutionary materialism. What I must largely
ignore is the wealth of comparative-historical data and
scholarship Sanderson brings to the exploration of this
theory. Sanderson is well versed in both social theory and
history; he moves well between the particular case and
the general perspective and back again.
Cultural Materialism
Sanderson’s “evolutionary materialism” is intended as
an extension of Marvin Harris’s theory of cultural
materialism. Cultural materialism (CM), Sanderson
claims, is well suited to explaining sociocultural
conditions and changes in pre-modern societies such
as the domestication of plants and animals, the
development of chiefdoms and the state, social
inequality, and the rise of stratification. But CM does
not do well when dealing with advanced agrarian
societies, the transition to modernity, or with modern
capitalist-industrial societies themselves (1999, 1).
Cultural Materialism
Harris’s CM, according to Sanderson, has not
developed concepts or posited relationships that
allow for a full examination of inequality within and
between modern nation-states, and has not
adequately developed a vocabulary or strategy for
dealing with such phenomena as corporate capitalism,
modern war, or the influence of mass media on
political behavior.
Cultural Materialism
Starting from a foundation of Harris’s cultural
materialism, Sanderson’s intent is to develop a theory
that is more capable of dealing with the origin,
maintenance, and evolution of the entire range of
human societies—from hunting and gathering through
horticultural, agrarian, and modern industrial societies.
Evolutionary Materialism
As the name implies, evolutionary materialism is
primarily focused on the process of social evolution.
Rather than view history (or pre-history) as a series of
unique and non-recurrent events, social evolutionists
see “general and repeatable patterns” of social
evolution. These patterns are produced by the
cumulated interactions of the sociocultural system with
its natural and social environments; these interactions
cause societies to change in broadly similar ways.
Evolutionary Materialism
Thus the domestication of plants and animals occurred
in several isolated societies around the globe without
the benefit of cultural contact with one another.
Cultural contact, however, is part of the social
environment of almost all societies, and such contact is
often the stimulus in causing evolutionary change. The
vast majority of societies domesticated plants and
animals because of contact with those who had
already gone through the process.
Social Stasis
It is not the case, Sanderson reminds us, that all
elements of sociocultural systems are in constant state
of change. Social stability (or “stasis”) is also very
much a part of social evolution. Social stability refers
to the long-term preservation or maintenance of social
institutions, behavioral patterns, and belief systems.
Many sociocultural systems are remarkable for their
unchanging nature (1999, 133).
Social Stasis
The ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Indus peoples,
for example, created extremely stable civilizations that
lasted for thousands of years. But one does not have to
look to pre-history alone for examples of social stability.
In general, pre-modern societies also have elements that
remained unchanging for centuries. Horticulture, for
example, was the primary means of subsistence for
thousands of years with little innovation over the
generations (McNeill1993, 27-55).
Social Stasis
The same may be said for various agrarian
civilizations throughout the world. It is only in relatively
modern times that the hold of tradition on people’s
lives begins to loosen; only in modern times that
sociocultural change becomes a far more common
phenomenon (1999, 15).
In addition to social stasis, “extinction” is another
phenomenon that must be accounted for in any
evolutionary theory. Extinction is the elimination or
collapse of a social system. This can occur in a number
of ways. War, disease, natural disaster, or ecological
change can sometimes lead to the death of all the
members of a social system or to such disruption that
the social system collapses.
It is also possible, Sanderson maintains, that the
growing complexity of society may well lead to
collapse. Citing Joseph Tainter’s (1988) theory of
societal collapse, Sanderson argues that growing
complexity leads to greater and greater costs of
maintaining administrative bureaucracy. These costs
eventually reach a point of diminishing returns,
whereby further increases in complexity bring
marginal benefit to either elites or to the population
as a whole.
Maintaining complexity becomes such a financial
drain that the society is in a weakened state, so any
major shock to the sociocultural system (such as war,
disease, natural disaster) will then make it vulnerable
to collapse (1999, 127-128; 383).
Sanderson notes that many evolutionary theorists in
the functionalist tradition maintain that growing
differentiation or complexity is the main adaptive
mechanism of sociocultural change. Sanderson, on the
other hand, maintains that increasing complexity is not
the only adaptive mechanism. Some evolutionary
events are regressive (going back to more simpler
forms) or are completely neutral (neither more
complex nor regressive) (1999, 385).
Tainter’s societal collapse theory throws doubt on the
supposed adaptation qualities of societal complexity.
Differentiation, specialization, and growing complexity
may be beneficial in the short run (particularly for elites),
but it may well be maladaptive strategy for the longterm. “The frequency of societal collapse in world history
surely provides a reason for having extreme doubt about
the allegedly adaptive benefits of social complexity”
(131). Having said all this, Sanderson adds in an
Afterword that greater complexity seems to be one of the
“directional patterns” to social evolution (403).
Should society collapse, surviving members are often
absorbed into other social systems or they adapt
earlier (and simpler) social forms to survive, a process
known as “devolution” or “regression” (Sanderson &
Alderson, 2005, 27 ). Sanderson enumerates a
number of consequences of such collapse.
There is a general breakdown of centralized authority
leading to an end of state works such as monumental
architecture (pyramids, temples, and palaces), complex
irrigation works, and the abandonment of storage
facilities and the cessation of the redistribution of food.
This often leads to severe food shortages and a marked
reduction in population size and density; food, shelter,
and other needs must often be provided for through
individual or local action. Technology and lifestyles thus
revert to simpler forms (2005, 28). Small political units
emerge within the territory of the collapsed state and
often contend with one another for power (1999, 126).
Like his mentors Harris and Lenski (and thus consistent with
Malthus), Sanderson insists that adaptations are made by
individuals, not by the sociocultural systems themselves
(1999, 384; 2005, 29). Individuals are strongly motivated
to satisfy their own needs and wants because humans are
strongly egoistic. We seek to maximize the benefits of our
actions and minimize the costs. Acting as individuals
seeking to satisfy our own needs, we enter into
relationships and form social structures, institutions and
systems that “are the sum total and product of these
socially oriented actions” (1999, 12-13).
Changes in the natural or social world (or both) cause
some individuals to make adaptation in their social
patterns to more effectively meet their biological and
psychological needs and desires. Specific adaptations on
the part of individuals can be the result of discovery or
invention (innovation) on the part of individuals involved,
or borrowing from other individuals or societies who have
already made the innovation (diffusion). While these
adaptations may allow the individual to better meet her
needs or desires, large numbers of people making the
adaptation may well have negative consequences for
other individuals (1999, 10).
In a complex society, particularly in those with high
degrees of inequality between groups, adaptations
are likely to positively or negatively affect more
people in some groups than in others—say by race,
class, religious group, or sex. Therefore, adaptations
on the part of individuals lead to changes in the social
environment itself, making further adaptations on the
part of others probable (1999, 10; 2005, 29).
There is, therefore, no direction to social evolution, there is
no grand historical plan, and history is not unfolding in
any predetermined direction. Rather, social evolution is
driven by individuals entering into and changing social
arrangements and institutions to further their own interests.
But, because there are many individuals with different
interests and unequal power involved, the social structures
that are continually being recreated are not the result of
conscious human design but rather are unintended
phenomenon which often have unforeseen consequences
(1999, 13).
Social structure is therefore a product “of human
intention but it is not an intended project” (1999,
399). The continuously recreated social system and
structures constitute “new sets of constraints within
which individually purposive action must operate”
(1999, 13). Social evolution is therefore the
cumulative change of social systems and structures as
the result of individuals acting to the best of their
abilities and foresight in their own self-interests.
Also like his mentors, Sanderson identifies the “principle
causal factors in social evolution” as the “material
conditions of human existence.” Sanderson’s ideas of what
constitutes these material conditions are consistent with
Harris and Lenski in that he includes ecological,
technological, and demographic factors. These three
factors are focused on the infrastructural-environmental
interactions of population, production technology, and the
environment as it concerns the availability of vital
resources to sustain population levels with the current form
of production (1999, pp. 8-9).
However, Sanderson differs from Harris and Lenski in
that he also incorporates economic factors within these
material conditions. For Sanderson, “economic factors
relate to the modes of social organization whereby
people produce, distribute, and exchange goods and
services; an especially important dimension of
economics is the nature of the ownership of the basic
means of production” (1999, 8-9).
In addition to incorporating economic factors into the
infrastructure, Sanderson also differs from Harris and
Lenski in that he posits that different material
conditions (environment, demography, technology,
economy) have different causal priority and strength
at different stages in the evolutionary process and in
different historical periods (1999, 9).
“The driving engines of social evolution differ from
one social-systemic type (historical epoch,
evolutionary stage) to another” (1999, 9).
Specifically, Sanderson asserts that ecology and
demography are dominant infrastructural
characteristics in explaining hunter and gatherer,
horticultural, and pastoral societies in prehistory.
He posits that ecology and demography as well as
technology and economy are all important for
agrarian societies in the historical era before 1500.
And, that the economy is the most important
infrastructural variable in explaining the modern
world after 1500, both in terms of a society’s internal
structure and in its effects upon relations with other
sociocultural systems. Sanderson & Alderson 2005,
Going further, Sanderson asserts that the ceaseless
accumulation of capital is the “driving engine” of
social evolution today, an engine that is ever
accelerating and may well lead us to environmental
crisis (1999, 361-366 & 392). Sanderson thus
combines Marx with his Malthusian-Evolutionary base:
he performs a slightly modified cultural materialist
analysis through 1500 and then with the transition to
capitalism, he shifts gears to a Marxian-economic
Sanderson, like Harris and Lenski before him, also
claims that the pace of social evolution varies through
history, but goes on to posit that it appears to be
speeding up in modern times. He also agrees that the
preferred method of the evolutionary analyst is the
historical comparative method (1999, 15). That is,
examining specific sociocultural systems through the
use of anthropological, historical, and sociological
data as well as comparing and contrasting systems
within evolutionary stages and historical epochs.
Of particular interest for evolutionists are transitions
from one sociocultural form to another. And it is in
performing comparative historical analysis that
Sanderson truly shines: he marshals an incredible
amount and variety of social science data to test the
power of evolutionary materialism in explaining
sociocultural stability and change. In this review we
are going to briefly focus on two such analyses: the
structure and dynamics of agrarian society and the
transition to capitalism and industrialism. (1999, 1617).
For a more extensive discussion of Sanderson’s theory,
as well as a fuller discussion of its implications for
understanding human behavior, refer to
Macrosociology: the Study of Sociocultural Systems. For
an even deeper understanding of Sanderson’s thought
read from the bibliography that follows.
Elwell, F.W. Macrosociology: The Study of Sociocultural Systems. Connecticut:
Mellen Press.
McNeil, W. H. (1993). A History of the Human Community. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Sanderson, S. (2007, June 20). About Sanderson. (F. Elwell, Interviewer)
Sanderson, S. K. (2007). Evolutionism and Its Critics: Deconstructing and
Reconstructing an Evolutionary Interpretation of Human Society. Boulder:
Paradigm Publishers.
Sanderson, S. K. (1990). Social Evolutionism: A Critical History. Oxford: Basil
Sanderson, S. K. (1999). Social Transformations: A General Theory of
Historical Development. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Sanderson, S. K., & Alderson, A. S. (2005). World Societies: The Evolution of
Human Social Life. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

similar documents