How did 19th-century cultural evolutionism classify human societies?

In 19th-century anthropology, cultural evolutionism classified human societies through a "unilinear" framework, which posited that all human groups pass through the same fixed stages of development as they progress from simple to complex, homogeneous to heterogeneous, and irrational to rational states.12

The Unilinear Classification

Scholars like Lewis Henry Morgan and E.B. Tylor were the primary proponents of this approach. Morgan, in his influential work Ancient Society, categorized human progress into three major stages, further subdivided into seven specific levels:13

• Savagery: Characterized by a hunting-and-gathering economy.43
• Barbarism: Defined by the emergence of agriculture.43
• Civilization: Represented by hierarchical, urban societies such as those of ancient Greece, Rome, and Victorian England.3

Ethical Implications

It is essential to recognize that these classifications were deeply intertwined with the colonial endeavors of the 19th century. By labeling indigenous cultures as "savage" or "barbarous," proponents of these theories provided a moral justification for colonial policies, making the forced assimilation of indigenous peoples appear as a benevolent effort to "civilize" them. This framework was inherently biased and is now considered scientifically invalid, as it failed to account for the unique historical trajectories of different cultures and relied on subjective, ethnocentric criteria for ranking human societies.325