An Analysis Of Salins's Theory Of Cultural Evolution

Marshall Sahlins is an American cultural anthropologist and a representative of the theory of cultural evolution.Varied,rich academic styles,and the new expression of the cultural evolution have made his theory an important influence on academic circles at home and abroad.This paper reveals the philosophical background and profound meaning of the theory,through the research of Sahlins' core thoughts.We not only enriched the key content of the cultural evolution,but also provided a new direction for the study of cultural philosophical themes such as cultural developments,cultural changes.Sahlins integrated the core ideas of cultural evolution with the early schools,the transitional schools and the new evolution schools,then he made a distinction between the general evolution and the special evolution of the culture.He believed that the special aspects and the general aspects of evolution are both belonging to the whole system of the cultural evolution,and he gave the duality of evolution to the study of the cultural process,then formed a cultural synthetic evolution.This paper analyzed the theoretical origin and core content of Sahlins's cultural synthetic evolution based on the text of his basic theory.The whole thesis is divided into four chapters.Firstly,it sorted out the origin and the academic background of Sahlins's cultural evolution,then cleared the formation process of his cultural evolution.Secondly,it expounded the cultural understanding and mutiple characteristics,then combed the main contents of his cultural evolution.Thirdly,it focused on the theoretical of practical significance of his cultural evolution.Finally,this paper conclude that Sahlins' had play an important role in cultural evolution development through the discussions on modernity and pluralism of cultural.