Evolutionary Implications of Cross-Cultural Correlations

Abstract

In 1896 Boas argued that “if anthropology desires to establish laws governing the growth of culture it must not confine itself to comparing the results of the growth alone, but whenever such is feasible it must compare the processes of growth” (p. 280). However, later it was argued that evolutionary inferences could not and should not be made from synchronic data. But is the comparative evolutionary method of anthropology entirely illegitimate? In this article, the authors test this hypothesis using synchronic and diachronic data on kinship organization and terminology from the Circum-Mediterranean region. This test appears to support the idea that inferences about specific evolutionary developments can be made on the basis of a synchronic association. Contrary to most anthropological discourse of the recent decades, the authors maintain that a synchronic association can serve as a sound basis for making inferences about specific evolutionary developments.