In the previous chapter, I passed quickly over the relation between sociology and social anthropology. We must now go into more detail.

Sociological studies of the early nineteenth century had a strongly evolutionary orientation. Early sociologists took it for granted that, just as evolution had occurred among living organisms from simple and lowly forms of life to more complex and more highly specialized plants and animals, so human societies had evolved from small to large, from simple to complex, and from those with little control over their environment to those that could adapt themselves to changed circumstances effectively. Auguste Comte (1798–1857), who is generally regarded as the founding father of our science, set out its aims thus:

A remarkable passage to have been published in 1822, twentyseven years before The Origin of Species!

Another early sociologist, Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) – regarded as fellow founding father with Comte – also took a strongly evolutionary point of view.