Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Not-Quite-Science Forum Is Science the answer?

Terry, I thought you'd be interested in this "definition," as well as the website.

http://www.anthrobase.com/default.html

"Social theory developed in the 19th century, which had fundamental influence on sociological and anthropological thinking up until the First World War (see structural functionalism). Evolutionism postulates that societies develop from simpler to more complex organizational forms, a simple formulation, which hardly anyone would disagree with, even today. In the 19th century, however, one often also imagined that development proceeded by necessity toward morally "superior" and more "civilized" conditions (a view that was widely abandoned after the First World War). In more modern variants, evolutionism is often tied to theories of modernization and scale, ecological anthropology, and research on development and underdevelopment. Levi-Strauss has shown that movements from "primitive" to "modern" thought not only implies increasing complexity, but a change in the type of complexity (see bricoleur)." -from
http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/def/evolutionism.htm

~SA

p.s. I agree, I don't think it's a very good analogy. They're both very complex progressive systems, but the particulars don't equate very well. IMHO
~S.