How did Julian Steward’s cultural ecology explain the relationship between human societies and their environments?

Julian Steward’s cultural ecology, developed in 1955, explains the relationship between human societies and their environments by moving beyond the limitations of both environmental determinism and possibilism.1

Steward proposed that cultures interact with their environmental settings by adapting features of technology, economic organization, and social structures—such as kinship or religion—to best pursue their livelihoods. Rather than viewing the environment as a simple determinant of behavior, he argued that it presents specific problems and opportunities. The resulting cultural adaptations depend as much on the existing sociocultural features of a group as they do on the physical environment.1

This approach posits that social systems arise from patterns of resource exploitation, which are determined by a group's technological adaptation to their natural surroundings. Because different physical and historical settings require unique adaptations, Steward argued that cultures follow "multilinear evolution"—a process where societies evolve along different paths rather than through a single, universal sequence. For example, he illustrated how the collective labor and centralized authority required for irrigation in arid climates led to increased social stratification and the development of the state.234