Legacy
Influenced by Darwinian theory, Julian Steward sought to apply the evolutionary model to sociocultural development. Together with Leslie White (who worked on the same matter but with a different approach), Steward succeeded in establishing a paradigm known as neoevolutionism.
Numerous anthropologists followed White and Steward. Marshall Sahlins and Elman Rogers Service attempted to synthesize White's and Steward's approaches. Others, such as Peter Vayda and Roy Rappaport, building on or responding to work by White and Steward, developed theories of cultural ecology and ecological anthropology. By the late 1950s, students of Steward such as Eric Wolf and Sidney Mintz turned away from cultural ecology to Marxism, and Marvin Harris's "cultural materialism."
Despite criticism, revisions, and outright rejection, Steward's work did provide an alternative to the discredited unilineal theory of cultural evolution and Boasian cultural relativism. Unfortunately, Steward's resentment against religion led him to embrace the view that the physical, material aspects of human existence have the greatest impact on human society, leaving his analyses lacking in their understanding of the significant role of the more internal, spiritual aspects, which must be included in a peaceful society that satisfies true human desires.