Energy and the Evolution of Culture

Bibliographic Data

ID7184448
AuthorsLeslie A White (University of Michigan, corresponding author)
Year1943
Volume45
Issue3
Pages335-356
Publication date1943-07-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/aa.1943.45.3.02a00010
OpenAlexW2027377517
LanguageEN
Citations received193

VERYTHING in the universe may be described in terms of energy.E Galaxies, stars, molecules, and atoms may be regarded as organizations of energy.'Living organisms may be looked upon as engines which operate by means of energy derived directly or indirectly from the sun.The civilizations, or cultures of mankind, also, may be regarded as a form or organization of energy.Culture is an organization of phenomena-material objects, bodily acts, ideas, and sentiments-which consists of or is dependent upon the use of symbols.Man, being the only animal capable of symbol-behavior, is the only creature to possess culture.2Culture is a kind of behavior.And behavior, whether of man, mule, plant, comet cr molecule, may be treated as a manifestation of energy.Thus we see, on all levels of real it^,^ that phenomena lend themselves to description and interpretation in terms of energy.Cultural anthropology is that branch of natural science4 which deals with matter-andmotion, i.e., energy, phenomena in cultural form, as biology deals with them in cellular, and physics in atomic, form.The purpose of culture is to serve the needs of man.These needs are of two kinds: (1) those which'can be served or satisfied by drawing upon resources within the human organism alone.Singing, dancing, myth-making, forming clubs or associations for the sake of companionship, etc., illustrate this kind of needs and ways of satisfying them.(2) The second class of needs can be satisfied only by drawing upon the resources of the external world, outside the human organism.Man must get his food from the external world.The tools, weapons, and other materials with which man provides himself with food, shelter from the elements, protection from his enemies, must likewise come from the external world.The satisfaction of spiritual and esthetic needs By "energy" we mean "the capacity for performing work

Biology · Citation · Energy (signal processing · Genealogy · Library science · Sociology · Statistics · White (mutation · American Environmental and Regional History · Computer Science · History · Mathematics

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