neoevolution

English

Etymology

From neo- +‎ evolution.

Noun

neoevolution (uncountable)

1. A model of cultural evolution associated with Leslie White and Julian Steward that seeks to define the forces that cause cultures to change.
   • 1972, Contemporary Archaeology: A Guide to Theory and Contributions, →ISBN, page 89:

     That readaptation has involved the incorporation of ideas not given explicit emphasis in neoevolution, the most important of which is systems theory.

   • 2011, P.W. Brown, Homo Luminous: Changing the Channels of Human Awareness, page 45:

     Leslie Alvin White, president of the American Anthropological Association, who is known for his advocacy of the theories on sociocultural evolution and neoevolution during the 1960s wrote, “Evolution may be defined as a temporal sequence of forms—one form grows out of another; culture advances from one stage to another. In this process, time is as integral a factor as change of form."

   • 2019 June 3, “Chapter 1: Introduction”, in Anna Marie Prentiss, editor, Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology, Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, Research Themes: Human Ecology, page 10:

     Problems with neoevolution and cultural ecology inevitably led to a strong theoretical response both in sociocultural anthropology and archaeology.

2. The elaboration of Darwin's theory of evolution that incorporates knowledge about genetics.
   • 1958, Archives néerlandaises de zoologie - Volume 13, page 187:

     In W. Roux' theory of neoevolution, the “mosaic theory” of development, the ordered structure of the adult organism is projected back upon the egg, each part of which represents the primordium of a corresponding part of the adult.

   • 1964, Sport Fishery Abstracts - Volumes 9-10, page 127:

     The phylogenetic adaptive significance of the "' neoevolution" of this tissue type is considered.

   • 1988, Jerry F. Downhower, The Biogeography of the Island Region of Western Lake Erie, page 4:

     Techniques involving chromosomal analysis of polygene sequences have been exploited only sparingly, yet, as indicated earlier, are full of promise when problems of neoevolution are approached.

   • 2002, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, page 31:

     The data document the neoevolution of a unique polygenic character in males.

3. Any of various theories, such as intelligent design, that seek to reconcile Darwinian evolution with Christian theology.
   • 1941, James Lonsdale Bryans, The Curve of Fate, page 292:

     Sceptics like this, while human nature lasts, there will always be—men who, like Holy Church, "willingly are ignorant of" the plain outstanding facts of evolution, and most particularly of that plain outstanding fact in neoevolution, psychological parthenogenesis, the “second birth" of John iii, 3–10, as a fool's substitute for which arose the world-wide conventional myth of “virgin birth" which, in its rôle of Antichrist, has succeeded in postponing for some nineteen centuries the consummation of that final evolutionary phenomenon in man called "Christ."

   • 2015, Olufemi Emmanuel Dokun-Babalola, Evolution: What Dawkins Did Not Tell You:

     The judge, who is a conservative appointed by George Bush, probably had Christian leanings, but took the view that neoevolution was not incompatible with a Creator God.

4. Any of various theories that examine the alteration or enhancement of humanity as a result of technology and/or cultural adaptation.
   • 2004, Frederick Buell, From Apocalypse to Way of Life:

     If civilization had broken the hold of the old logic of scarcity, had set aside all limits to growth, had embraced chaos and celebrated disequilibrium, and had appropriated nature's biology as neobiology and evolution as neoevolution, vanguard cyberenthusiasts went still further.

   • 2019, Michael Davidson, Invalid Modernism, page 147:

     Their discussion of a non-evolutionary perspective on species identity is relevant to Animal's People, especially their view that “neoevolution” or the becoming of animal nature depends on “a pack, a band, a population, a peopling, in short, a multiplicity".