Gerhard Emmanuel Lenski (born August 13, 1924 in Washington, DC) is an American sociologist known for contributions to the
sociology of religionThe sociology of religion concerns the practices, social structures, historical backgrounds, developments, universal themes and roles of religion in society. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history...
,
social inequalitySocial inequality refers to a lack of social equality, where individuals in a society do not have equal social status. Instances that may involve being socially unequal include property rights, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, access to health care, and education as well as many...
, and ecological-evolutionary
social theorySocial theory is the use of theoretical frameworks to study and interpret social structures and phenomena within a particular school of thought....
(which is related to cultural evolution). He is a Professor
EmeritusEmeritus is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop, or other professional. Emerita is often used as the female equivalent, although avoided by purists, since phrases such as professor emerita are ungrammatical in Latin...
at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. The university is the oldest in, and flagship of, the University of North Carolina system...
.
In his books,
Power and Privilege (1966) and
Human Societies: An Introduction to MacrosociologyMacrosociology is a sociological approach that analyzes societies, social systems or populations on a large scale or at a high level of abstraction. It is considered one of the main foundations of sociology, alongside microsociology and mesosociology. Microsociology focuses on the individual...
(1974-2008) Lenski expands on the works of
Leslie White-Biography:White's father was a peripatetic civil engineer. White lived first in Kansas and then Louisiana. He volunteered to fight in World War I, but saw only the tail end of it, spending a year in the US Navy before matriculating at Louisiana State University in 1919.In 1921, he transferred to...
and Lewis Henry Morgan.
Gerhard Emmanuel Lenski (born August 13, 1924 in Washington, DC) is an American sociologist known for contributions to the
sociology of religionThe sociology of religion concerns the practices, social structures, historical backgrounds, developments, universal themes and roles of religion in society. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history...
,
social inequalitySocial inequality refers to a lack of social equality, where individuals in a society do not have equal social status. Instances that may involve being socially unequal include property rights, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, access to health care, and education as well as many...
, and ecological-evolutionary
social theorySocial theory is the use of theoretical frameworks to study and interpret social structures and phenomena within a particular school of thought....
(which is related to cultural evolution). He is a Professor
EmeritusEmeritus is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop, or other professional. Emerita is often used as the female equivalent, although avoided by purists, since phrases such as professor emerita are ungrammatical in Latin...
at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. The university is the oldest in, and flagship of, the University of North Carolina system...
.
Work
In his books,
Power and Privilege (1966) and
Human Societies: An Introduction to MacrosociologyMacrosociology is a sociological approach that analyzes societies, social systems or populations on a large scale or at a high level of abstraction. It is considered one of the main foundations of sociology, alongside microsociology and mesosociology. Microsociology focuses on the individual...
(1974-2008) Lenski expands on the works of
Leslie White-Biography:White's father was a peripatetic civil engineer. White lived first in Kansas and then Louisiana. He volunteered to fight in World War I, but saw only the tail end of it, spending a year in the US Navy before matriculating at Louisiana State University in 1919.In 1921, he transferred to...
and Lewis Henry Morgan. He views technological progress as the most basic factor in the evolution of societies and cultures. Unlike White, who defined technology as the ability to create and utilize
energyIn physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of work that can be performed by a force, an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law...
, Lenski focuses on
informationInformation as a concept has many meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. The concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation.The English...
- its amount and uses. The more information and knowledge a given society has, especially where it allows humans to shape their environment, the more advanced it is. He distinguishes four stages of human development, based on advances in the
history of communicationThe history of communication dates back to the earliest signs of life. Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full conversations and mass communication. Human communication was revolutionized with speech about 200,000 years ago. Symbols were developed about 30,000 years...
. In the first stage, information is passed by
genesGênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after the city Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa. It was divided into the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
. In the second, when humans gain
sentienceSentience is the ability to feel or perceive subjectively. The term is used in philosophy as well as in science fiction and in the study of artificial intelligence...
, they can
learnLEARN may refer to:* Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network, a website run by the Anti-Defamation League* LEARN diet, a brand name diet product...
and pass information through individual experience. In the third, humans begin to use
signsSigns is the plural of sign. See sign .Signs may also refer to:*Signs, a 1993 album by Kathryn Tickell*Signs , a 2001 album by Badmarsh & Shri*Signs , a 2002 film by M...
and develop
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
. In the fourth, they create
symbolA symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. For example, a red octagon may stand for "STOP". On maps, crossed sabres may indicate a battlefield...
s, and develop
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
and
writingWriting is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as magnetic tape audio.In Eurasia writing began as a...
. Advances in the technology of communication translate into advances in a society's
economic systemAn economic system is the system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services of an economy. Alternatively, it is the set of principles and techniques by which problems of economics are addressed, such as the economic problem of scarcity through allocation of finite productive...
and
political systemA political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. It is different from them, and can be generally defined on a spectrum from left, e.g. communism, to the right, e.g. fascism...
, distribution of goods,
social inequalitySocial inequality refers to a lack of social equality, where individuals in a society do not have equal social status. Instances that may involve being socially unequal include property rights, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, access to health care, and education as well as many...
and other spheres of social life. He also differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication and economy:
- hunters and gatherers
- simple agricultural or horticultural (lacking the plow)
- advanced agricultural
- industrial
- special (e.g. fishing societies or maritime societies)
To add to the description of Lenski's work given here, one must note that the different types of societies are not separated by technology per se, but by subsistence technology, the methods used to produce the societies basic needs. While technology alone does not determine the type of society, it does, in Lenski's view, limit what is possible. The simplest example is food production: how a society produces its food establishes limits to the size of the population that can be sustained. Given that humans, like most other species, tend to over-reproduce, population pressure is created. In short, societies must always seek to find ways to produce more food so that larger populations can be sustained, and so that
draconianDraconian may refer to:* Draconian , a fictional species in the Dragonlance setting* Draconian , an extraterrestrial race from the Doctor Who television series* Draconian , a gothic/doom metal band from Sweden...
methods of
population controlPopulation control is the practice of artificially altering the rate of population growth. Historically, population control has been implemented by limiting the population's birth rate, usually by government mandate, and has been undertaken as a response to factors including high or increasing...
(war and
infanticideInfanticide is the practice of someone intentionally killing an infant. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but criminology recognizes various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
, for example) will not be necessary. This constant pressure to accommodate growing population is a key catalyst for discovery and invention. Of course this process is much easier to discern in earlier forms of social organization, such as hunting & gathering and
horticultureHorticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Some would say that horticulture is the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant...
, but the principle also applies to more modern social forms. Lenski argues that knowing a society's type of subsistence technology allows one to predict a great deal about its social organization - political, social, economic, and religious. Looking at the developing world in the early 21st century for example, one can explain a great deal about a developing country by looking at what sort of social organization it had when it began to industrialize. The correlation and typical consequences are uncanny. For instance, if a country entered the industrial era from a primarily horticultural type of production - its people are highly likely to have a stronger alliance to their tribe than to their nation-state. Tribal affiliation was paramount in the horticultural era. This gradually evolved into
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
in the agrarian era - but many of the newly independent states created through the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
, post
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, were still largely horticultural. Arguably this has been a huge impediment to development in these states, but one that has gotten surprisingly little attention from policy makers or diplomats.
External links