White's law, named after
Leslie White
Leslie Alvin White (January 19, 1900, Salida, Colorado – March 31, 1975, Lone Pine, California) was an American anthropologist known for his advocacy of the theories on cultural evolution, sociocultural evolution, and especially neoevolu ...
and published in 1943, states that, other factors remaining constant, "
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
evolves as the amount of
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...
harnessed per capita per year is increased, or as the
efficiency
Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...
of the instrumental means of putting the energy to
work
Work may refer to:
* Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community
** Manual labour, physical work done by humans
** House work, housework, or homemaking
** Working animal, an animal t ...
is increased".
[American Materialism](_blank)
College of Arts & Sciences , The University of Alabama
Description
White spoke of
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
as a general human phenomenon and claimed not to speak of 'cultures' in the plural. His theory, published in 1959 in ''The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome'', rekindled the interest in
social evolutionism
Sociocultural evolution, sociocultural evolutionism or social evolution are theories of sociobiology and cultural evolution that describe how societies and culture change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend ...
and is counted prominently among the
neoevolutionists. He believed that culture – meaning the sum total of all human cultural activity on the planet – was evolving.
White differentiated between three components of culture:
# Technological,
# Sociological and
# Ideological, and argued that it was the technological component which plays a primary role or is the primary determining factor responsible for the cultural evolution.
Argument synopsis
White's materialist approach is evident in the following quote: "man as an animal species, and consequently culture as a whole, is dependent upon the material, mechanical means of adjustment to the natural environment".
This technological component can be described as material, mechanical, physical and chemical instruments, as well as the way people use these techniques. White's argument on the importance of technology goes as follows:
[Leslie White (The United States, 1900-1975)](_blank)
Minnesota State University
# Technology is an attempt to solve the problems of survival.
# This attempt ultimately means capturing enough energy and diverting it for human needs.
# Societies that capture more energy and use it more efficiently have an advantage over other societies.
# Therefore, these different societies are more advanced in an evolutionary sense.
For White "the primary function of culture" and the one that determines its level of advancement is its ability to "harness and control energy". White's law states that the measure by which to judge the relative degree of evolvedness of culture was the amount of energy it could capture (
energy consumption
Energy consumption is the amount of energy used.
Biology
In the body, energy consumption is part of energy homeostasis. It derived from food energy. Energy consumption in the body is a product of the basal metabolic rate and the physical activit ...
). White differentiates between five stages of human development. In the first, people use energy of their own muscles. In the second, they use the energy of
domesticated animals
This page gives a list of domesticated animals, also including a list of animals which are or may be currently undergoing the process of domestication and animals that have an extensive relationship with humans beyond simple predation. This includ ...
. In the third, they use the energy of plants (so White refers to agricultural revolution here). In the fourth, they learn to use the energy of natural resources: coal, oil, gas. In the fifth, they harness
nuclear energy.
White's energy formula
White introduced a formula:
:
...where E is a measure of energy consumed
per capita
''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
per year, T is the measure of efficiency of
technical factors utilising the energy and C represents the degree of cultural development. In his own words: "the basic law of cultural evolution" was "culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased, or as the efficiency of the instrumental means of putting the energy to work is increased." Therefore "we find that progress and development are affected by the improvement of the mechanical means with which energy is harnessed and put to work as well as by increasing the amounts of energy employed".
Although White stops short of promising that technology is the panacea for all the problems that affect mankind, like
technological utopians do, his theory treats technological factor as the most important factor in the
evolution of society and is similar to the later works of
Gerhard Lenski
Gerhard Emmanuel "Gerry" Lenski, Jr. (August 13, 1924 – December 7, 2015) was an American sociologist known for contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and introducing the ecological-evolutionary theory. He spent much of ...
, the theory of
Kardashev scale
The Kardashev scale ( Russian: Шкала Кардашева, ''Shkala Kardasheva'') is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use. The measure was proposed by S ...
of Russian astronomer,
Nikolai Kardashev
Nikolai Semyonovich Kardashev ( rus, Никола́й Семёнович Кардашёв, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj sʲɪˈmʲɵnəvʲɪtɕ kərdɐˈʂof; 25 April 1932 – 3 August 2019) was a Soviet and Russian astrophysicist, Doctor of Physical and M ...
and to some notions of
technological singularity
The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. According to the m ...
.
Later research
In White's formula ''C = ET'', the T (technological efficiency) could hardly be mathematically expressed. Unhappy with the formula, historian Max Ostrovsky worked to find mathematical expression, as well as to reduce the totality of E (energy consumed) to an essential measurable indicator. Having researched several disciplines, including climatology, all civilizations and the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...
and
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
s, he reduced White's formula to the following:
C = total cereal tonnage produced by one percent of global manpower.
Ostrovsky applied the same formula to measure national power, replacing global manpower with national. The formula mathematically demonstrates the unipolar distribution of power in the
post-Cold War era. Ostrovsky claims that his version of White's law works since the
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an inc ...
and was not altered by the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. He refers to the same NASA image (above), stressing that its brightest regions are regions fertile for cereals. According to Ostrovsky, there is no any permanent
geographic pivot of history because climate is impermanent. Paraphrasing Mackinder, he drew what he claims a pivot relevant for all historical ages:
Who rules the largest temperate zone with the most optimum rainfall, rules the world.
Another formula Ostrovsky derived from White's law explains great social revolutions:
When the percentage of manpower engaged in agriculture declines from 80 to 60, a society undergoes great social revolution whether from above or below.
Revolution from above means reformation. In one stroke, Ostrovsky mathematically explained the
Dutch Revolt
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Ref ...
, the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
reformations, the
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
Chinese great revolutions, the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
and the untouched by sociologists ancient Roman revolution.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
''Liberté, égalité, fraternité'' (), French for "liberty, equality, fraternity", is the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti, and is an example of a tripartite motto. Although it finds its origins in the French Revolution, i ...
and many other slogans were heard over the barricades and frontlines but in all cases, he emphasizes, the longest result and sometimes the only result was transfer of power from land owners (plantation owners in the American case) to industrial entrepreneurs (the
order of knights in the Roman case).
[Ostrovsky, 2007, p 111-126.]
See also
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*
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*
Kardashev scale
The Kardashev scale ( Russian: Шкала Кардашева, ''Shkala Kardasheva'') is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use. The measure was proposed by S ...
*
*
Gerhard Lenski
Gerhard Emmanuel "Gerry" Lenski, Jr. (August 13, 1924 – December 7, 2015) was an American sociologist known for contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and introducing the ecological-evolutionary theory. He spent much of ...
*
*
*
*
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References
{{Reflist
Anthropology
Historical determinism
Theories of history