Chart 9: Sociocultural Evolution
Chart 9: Sociocultural Evolution
Correlates a dozen theorists' accounts of social/cultural evolution against the familiar foraging → horticultural → agrarian → industrial → informational sequence Wilber uses throughout the book, rather than against the full individual basic-structures spine (which is shown in the source but mostly sparse/bracket-only at this resolution — presented here at the sequence's own natural grouping instead of forcing false precision onto the finer spine).
Transcribed and cross-checked against the source page images
(library/2000-integral-psychology-images/00050.jpg-00053.jpg); draft, not yet
independently verified by a second pass.
Cultural/social epochs, Habermas, and Jean Houston
| Stage | Cultural epoch (Wilber) | Social epoch (Wilber) | Habermas (epoch) | Jean Houston |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foraging | Magic-typhonic | Foraging, tribes, organized, hunt | Archaic (familiarization of male), tribal kinship | Magical-animistic; pre-individual, constricted consciousness |
| Horticultural | Mythic-membership | Horticultural, village | Mythological, preconventional law | Proto-individual |
| Agrarian | Mythic-membership (cont.) | Agrarian, early state | Mythological, early state | — |
| Advanced agrarian / Industrial | Rational-egoic | Advanced ag./empire, industrial/nation-state | Mythic-rational/empire, rational-reflective/nation-state, postconventional law | Mid-individual |
| Informational | Integral-centauric | Informational, planetary/global | World citizens, global | Individual → post-individual |
The source also brackets a separate "most advanced spiritual attainment in each era" column against the psychic/subtle/causal/nondual rows of the individual spine: shaman, saint, sage, and siddha, in that order — sparse in the source beyond the four labels themselves, not tied to a specific era column.
Scarce resource, age, and techno-economic base
| Stage | Habermas (scarce resource) | Age | Lenski (techno-economic base) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foraging | Power over nature (bodily security) | Paleolithic | Simple hunting and gathering |
| Horticultural | Legal security (law and order) | Mesolithic, Neolithic | Advanced hunting and gathering, simple horticultural |
| Agrarian | Value | Copper, Bronze | Advanced horticultural, simple agrarian |
| Industrial | Meaning | Iron, Enlightenment | Advanced agrarian, industrial |
| Informational | Meaning (cont.) | Globalization | Informational |
Sociocultural stages, Gebser, and Taylor
| Stage | Sociocultural (Wilber) | Jean Gebser | A. Taylor (levels of social organization) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foraging | Foraging, tribes | Archaic | S1 — family, clan, band |
| (transition) | — | Magic | — |
| Horticultural / Agrarian | Horticultural, village, agrarian, early state | Mythic | S2 — tribe, territorial |
| Advanced agrarian / Industrial | Advanced ag., empire, industrial, nation | Mental | S3 — theocratic empires; S4 — national state |
| Informational | Informational, global | Integral-aperspectival | S5 — supranational |
Jay Earley, Robert Bellah, and Duane Elgin
These three run their own numbered/named sequences rather than mapping onto the five-stage spine above — presented at their own resolution.
| Jay Earley | Robert Bellah (religious evolution) | Duane Elgin (era of consciousness) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Tribal hunting magic | Primitive | 1. Archaic humans (contracted consciousness) |
| 2. Horticulture, villages, mythology | 2. Hunter-gatherer (surface consciousness) | |
| Archaic | 3. Agrarian (depth) | |
| 3. Empires, gods and heroes | Historic | — |
| 4. Medieval | Early-modern | — |
| 5. Modern, democracy, individualism | Modern | 4. Urban-industrial (dynamic) |
| 6. Global consciousness | — | FUTURE: |
| 5. Global reconciliation (reflective) | ||
| 6. Global bonding (oceanic) | ||
| 7. Global creativity (flow) | ||
| 8. Global wisdom (integral) |
See Also
- Waves and Streams — the individual-level spine this chart's social/cultural sequence runs parallel to
- Jürgen Habermas — appears twice in this chart, both as an epoch scheme and a scarce-resource scheme
