Comparing Anthropological Theories: Social Evolutionism and Education

This essay delves into the comparison of two prominent anthropological theories: social evolutionism and structural-functionalism, using education as a focal point. It begins with an overview of each theory, defining social evolutionism as the study of societal development through cultural evolution and structural-functionalism as a framework for understanding societal stability through interconnected parts. The essay then provides a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both theories, particularly in the context of education. It highlights how structural-functionalism emphasizes the importance of education in fulfilling societal needs and maintaining social order, while social evolutionism focuses on the adaptation of educational systems. The essay also discusses the weaknesses of each theory, such as the potential for inequalities in structural-functionalism and the 'survival of the fittest' concept in social evolutionism. The essay concludes by emphasizing the different approaches and principles used by each theory in implementing educational aspects and their overall benefits to the community. The essay provides references to support the arguments and analysis presented.

ANTHROPOLOGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title: Essay about comparisons between the strengths and weaknesses of the two following
anthropological theories namely social evolutionism and structural-functionalism using
education as an example..............................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

Title: Essay about comparisons between the strengths and weaknesses of the two following
anthropological theories namely social evolutionism and structural-functionalism using
education as an example
Anthropological theory is defined as the platform for gaining insights on the scientific
study of humans and their behavioural changes. This essay is based on understanding the
anthropological theories in relevance to the education. It is going to reflect upon the strengths
and weaknesses of two theories namely social evolutionism and structural-functionalism.
Overview of social evolutionism
Social behaviour theory state that societies are developed according to a particular universal
order of cultural evolution. Thus, there has been a rapid growth of different societies exist in the
world. Social evolution is a type of evolutionary biology that concern about the social behaviour
of human that have individuals maintain the fitness of consequences. This theory was developed
in 19th century to propose the social evolution. It always claims that societies to develop one
universal in order of revolution of culture and rate of albites (Currás and Sastre, 2019). It can be
divided into different stages that classified as a state of civilization, savagery and barbarism. It is
primarily based on the characteristics of technological aspects to maintain the rank of civilization
in the society. The theory can be proposed that war and also promoting the evolution in the
societies.
Overview of structural-functionalism
Structure functionalism is a framework that help for building theory to see the complex
situation and condition of society. It is promoting the complex part that work together to
maintain stability and solidarity. It may include social culture, latent functions. Social and
manifest functions (Garner, 2019). It is one of the main idea in the structural functionalism that
made up groups and institution which share between the common norms and definitive culture.
For example- women being the subordinate to men which allow the wage earners to perform
function smoothly and everyone know about the position in the hierarchy of society.
Comparative study about strengths and weaknesses of social evolutionism and structural-
functionalism
It has been demonstrated that education is the basic necessity of an individual's life which
must be exercised by needs and requirements. Moreover, the anthropological perspectives in
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regard to the structural-functionalism shed light on the biological and psychological needs. The
prime focus is on the simplification of understanding the key features of this theory that help in
gaining knowledge of social systems and structural patterns of people. For instance, education is
the fundamental right and has been conferred on the unanimous decisions to control the analogy
of human body (Parsons, 2017). Here the main elements involve system, its functions and needs.
On the other hand, social evolutionism is the extension of the evolutionary psychological
frameworks that deals with the domain specificity. Here the human evolutionary has been in
lines with the formal discipline that has grown with the onset of globalization and technological
advancements. It is also in relation with the formal structure where the individuals were given a
formal mechanism to adapt the new and traditional systems of education levels. The strengths are
in managing the elemental features to establish a systematic framework of imparting education.
In regard to the same, the weaknesses include about the theories in terms of using
education as the driving force. The structural-functionalism reflect upon the exploitation of the
needs and requirements that are required to fulfil the specifications in imparting education for the
different sections of the society (Sanderson, 2015). Moreover, the inequalities that are prevalent
in acknowledging the efforts that has been put by the humans. Here the differences is either on
the economic status and the differences in the cultural factors whether biological or
psychological. Whereas the social evolutionism is based on providing the learning activities in
more secular way, however, the major weakness lies in the selection of the survival of the fittest
(Lewis and Lewis, 2018). Nevertheless, the inheritance attributes are also playing an important
role in knowing about the drawbacks and the existing challenges that has seen in the education
sector. Thus, the major differences is in the way of using the tools and the principles while
implementing the educational aspects to give several benefits to the entire community on the
whole.
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REFERENCES
Currás, B.X. and Sastre, I., 2019. Alternative Iron Ages: Social Theory from Archaeological
Analysis.
Garner, R.T., 2019. Structural Functional Theory. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology.
pp.1-4.
Lewis, J. and Lewis, B., 2018. The myth of declining violence: Liberal evolutionism and violent
complexity. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 21(3). pp.225-241.
Parsons, T., 2017. The present status of “structural-functional” theory in sociology. In The idea
of social structure (pp. 67-84). Routledge.
Sanderson, S.K., 2015. The Nature of Social Evolutionism. In Evolutionism and Its Critics (pp.
11-19). Routledge.
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