Meanings
- uncountableanthropologyA school of anthropology, developed in the mid-20th century, concerned with long-term, evolutionary social change and with the regular patterns of development that may be seen in unrelated, widely separated cultures.
1 more example
The so-called neoevolutionism or cultural materialism of Childe, however, had been preserved (in the works of R. McC. Adams, Braidwood, and others), as had the environmental school of Crawford, Fox, and Clark. […] Influences from cultural anthropology—neoevolutionism and functionalism—were pulling in the same direction.
1977 March, Leo S. Klejn, “A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology”, in Current Anthropology, volume 18, number 1, →DOI, page 4
Synonyms & antonyms
nounschool of anthropology concerned with long-term culture change and with the similar patterns of development that may be seen in unrelated, widely separated cultures.
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Hungarian neoevolucionizmus
- neoevolucionizmusschool of antropology
Italian neoevoluzionismo
- neoevoluzionismoschool of antropology
Cite this entry
neoevolutionism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neoevolutionism
“neoevolutionism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neoevolutionism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “neoevolutionism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neoevolutionism.
Source: neoevolutionism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.