Theory of Culture Change
E480942
Theory of Culture Change is an influential anthropological work that develops Julian Steward’s concept of cultural ecology, explaining how cultures adapt to their environmental and social contexts through multilinear evolution.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Theory of Culture Change canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4934394 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theory of Culture Change Context triple: [Julian Steward, notableWork, Theory of Culture Change]
-
A.
The Nature of Culture
The Nature of Culture is a seminal anthropological work by Alfred L. Kroeber that systematically explores the concept, patterns, and development of human culture.
-
B.
The evolution of culture
"The evolution of culture" is a chapter that explores how cultural ideas and practices develop, spread, and transform over time through processes analogous to biological evolution.
-
C.
Patterns of Culture
Patterns of Culture is a landmark 1934 anthropological book by Ruth Benedict that explores how different societies shape distinct cultural "patterns" of thought, behavior, and values.
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D.
Transforming Anthropology
Transforming Anthropology is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Anthropological Association that focuses on critical, socially engaged, and transformative scholarship in anthropology.
-
E.
Rethinking Social Inquiry
Rethinking Social Inquiry is a methodological volume in political science that critiques and extends the quantitative, positivist approach of Designing Social Inquiry by advocating for pluralistic, case-based, and mixed-method research strategies.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theory of Culture Change Target entity description: Theory of Culture Change is an influential anthropological work that develops Julian Steward’s concept of cultural ecology, explaining how cultures adapt to their environmental and social contexts through multilinear evolution.
-
A.
The Nature of Culture
The Nature of Culture is a seminal anthropological work by Alfred L. Kroeber that systematically explores the concept, patterns, and development of human culture.
-
B.
The evolution of culture
"The evolution of culture" is a chapter that explores how cultural ideas and practices develop, spread, and transform over time through processes analogous to biological evolution.
-
C.
Patterns of Culture
Patterns of Culture is a landmark 1934 anthropological book by Ruth Benedict that explores how different societies shape distinct cultural "patterns" of thought, behavior, and values.
-
D.
Transforming Anthropology
Transforming Anthropology is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Anthropological Association that focuses on critical, socially engaged, and transformative scholarship in anthropology.
-
E.
Rethinking Social Inquiry
Rethinking Social Inquiry is a methodological volume in political science that critiques and extends the quantitative, positivist approach of Designing Social Inquiry by advocating for pluralistic, case-based, and mixed-method research strategies.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
anthropological work
ⓘ
book ⓘ |
| addresses |
interaction of environment, technology, and social organization
ⓘ
methodology for comparative cultural studies ⓘ problems of historical reconstruction in anthropology ⓘ |
| argues |
cultural evolution follows multiple possible pathways
ⓘ
ecological and technological factors shape core cultural features ⓘ similar environments can lead to similar cultural adaptations ⓘ |
| author | Julian Steward ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
unilinear evolution
ⓘ
universal evolutionary schemes in anthropology ⓘ |
| critiques | universal stages of cultural evolution ⓘ |
| developsConcept | cultural ecology ⓘ |
| discipline | anthropology ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
causal analysis of cultural patterns
ⓘ
comparative method in anthropology ⓘ empirical field data in theory building ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
adaptation of cultures to ecological conditions
ⓘ
relationship between culture and environment ⓘ social organization and environment ⓘ |
| hasGenre | academic monograph ⓘ |
| hasImpactOn |
debates about determinism in anthropology
ⓘ
models of cultural adaptation ⓘ regional analysis in anthropology ⓘ |
| influenced |
cultural ecology
ⓘ
development of neo-evolutionism in anthropology ⓘ ecological anthropology ⓘ processual archaeology ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Boasian anthropology
ⓘ
Julian Steward's fieldwork in the American West ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
culture core
ⓘ
environmental adaptation ⓘ levels of sociocultural integration ⓘ multilinear cultural evolution ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
cultural ecology
ⓘ
culture change ⓘ multilinear evolution ⓘ |
| proposes | multilinear evolution of cultures ⓘ |
| publishedInField | United States anthropology ⓘ |
| theoreticalOrientation |
cultural materialism precursor
ⓘ
neo-evolutionism ⓘ |
| usedIn |
anthropological theory courses
ⓘ
courses on cultural evolution ⓘ courses on ecological anthropology ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Theory of Culture Change Description of subject: Theory of Culture Change is an influential anthropological work that develops Julian Steward’s concept of cultural ecology, explaining how cultures adapt to their environmental and social contexts through multilinear evolution.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.