Julian Steward

Julian Steward didn’t set out to rewrite anthropology, but his ideas would transform the field forever. Best known as the founder of cultural ecology, Steward developed a groundbreaking approach to understanding how human societies adapt to their environments. In an era dominated by historical particularism and sweeping evolutionary theories, he carved out a middle path-one that recognized both environmental constraints and cultural innovation.

Born in the early 20th century, Steward’s work emerged from a diverse blend of ethnographic fieldwork, theoretical rigor, and an ambition to make anthropology more scientific and comparative. He challenged the Boasian tradition that emphasized unique cultural histories, instead arguing that some aspects of culture could be explained by consistent ecological and technological patterns.

Steward was not just a theorist-he was also a builder of institutions, a teacher of influential students, and an editor of foundational texts. His model of multilinear evolution provided a flexible alternative to outdated unilinear theories, paving the way for later developments in political ecology, development studies, and environmental anthropology.

Though sometimes overshadowed by flashier intellectuals, Julian Steward’s quiet revolution continues to shape how we think about culture, nature, and change.

Early Life and Education

Julian Haynes Steward was born on January 31, 1902, in Washington, D.C., into a middle-class family. His early years were shaped by a keen interest in nature, especially the desert landscapes of the American West. This formative exposure to environmental diversity would later play a pivotal role in his development of cultural ecology.

Steward began his undergraduate studies at Deep Springs College in California-a unique, isolated institution where manual labor and intellectual inquiry went hand-in-hand. He then transferred to Cornell University, where he initially intended to study medicine. However, a growing fascination with archaeology and indigenous cultures led him to anthropology.

He completed his undergraduate degree at Cornell and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, where he studied under Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie-key figures in American cultural anthropology. Though influenced by the Boasian tradition of cultural particularism, Steward soon began to question its reluctance to generalize across cultures.

Academic Career and Fieldwork

Steward’s academic career began in earnest with teaching positions at the University of Michigan and the University of Utah. It was during this time that he conducted fieldwork among Shoshonean-speaking peoples in the Great Basin, a dry and sparsely populated region in the western United States. These studies became foundational to his later theory of cultural ecology how small-scale societies adapted to arid, resource-scarce environments.

In 1930, he published “The Economic and Social Basis of Primitive Bands,” a key article that began laying out his views on how environment, subsistence strategy, and social organization interact. His work stood in contrast to the dominant Boasian approach, which emphasized unique cultural histories over systemic patterns.

During World War II, Steward contributed to the Handbook of South American Indians, a multi-volume project sponsored by the U.S. government. He edited several volumes and promoted a comparative, functionalist perspective that aligned with his theoretical commitments. His research took him to Puerto Rico, Peru, and other parts of Latin America, where he examined how traditional societies adapted to colonial and modern pressures.

Later, Steward held prominent academic posts at Columbia University and the University of Illinois, where he trained a generation of anthropologists who would carry his ideas into new domains. He emphasized empirical research and theoretical synthesis-always linking environmental conditions to cultural expression.

Theoretical Contributions: Cultural Ecology

Julian Steward’s most influential idea was cultural ecology-a framework for studying how human societies interact with their environments through technology, subsistence, and social organization. He introduced this concept in the 1950s as a methodological alternative to the dominant Boasian school, which resisted cross-cultural generalizations.

Steward proposed that cultures are shaped, in part, by their adaptation to specific environmental contexts. He emphasized the importance of the “culture core”-the constellation of features most directly related to subsistence and economic activity. By analyzing the culture core, anthropologists could draw meaningful comparisons between societies that shared similar ecological challenges.

Rather than asserting that environment determined culture (a view associated with earlier environmental determinism), Steward argued for a probabilistic relationship. Environmental factors constrained the range of cultural possibilities, but did not dictate outcomes. In this way, he bridged the gap between rigid determinism and Boasian historicism.

His approach provided a powerful toolkit for analyzing societies in deserts, mountains, jungles, and urbanizing regions, and it laid the groundwork for ecological anthropology, which would flourish in the 1960s and 1970s.

Evolutionary Theory and Multilinear Evolution

In reaction to outdated unilinear evolutionary theories-which placed cultures on a single trajectory from “primitive” to “civilized”-Steward developed the theory of multilinear evolution. He argued that cultures evolve along multiple pathways, shaped by unique combinations of environmental pressures, technological innovations, and historical events.

In his major theoretical work, Theory of Culture Change (1955), Steward insisted that anthropologists should seek regularities in how cultures adapt and evolve, but without assuming that all societies pass through the same stages. This made multilinear evolution more flexible and empirically grounded than its predecessors.

His framework influenced anthropologists studying modernization, development, and long-term social change. It allowed for a nuanced understanding of how agricultural, pastoral, and industrial societies emerged in different regions of the world-without reducing them to a single narrative.

Influence on Anthropology and Legacy

Julian Steward’s impact on anthropology was profound and lasting. As a teacher and mentor, he shaped the work of major figures such as:

• Elman Service (social evolution and state formation)
• Eric Wolf (Marxist anthropology and peasant studies)
• Roy Rappaport (ritual and ecological balance)
• Marvin Harris (cultural materialism)

His ideas paved the way for the development of ecological anthropology, political ecology, and cultural materialism, fields that continue to explore the relationships between environment, economy, and culture.

Though later scholars critiqued Steward for focusing too narrowly on subsistence and ignoring symbolic systems, his insistence on linking theory to empirical observation remains central to anthropological method. More recently, his approach has gained renewed attention in debates about climate change, sustainability, and human-environment dynamics.

Steward’s legacy is not just theoretical-it is practical. His ideas have helped frame policy debates on development, indigenous land use, and environmental adaptation, making his work as relevant today as it was in the mid-20th century.

References

1. “Julian Steward.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julian-Steward
2. Manners, Robert A. “Julian Haynes Steward.” Biographical Memoirs: Volume 69. National Academy of Sciences. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/5193/chapter/18National Academies Press
3. “Julian Steward.” University of Illinois Archives. https://archon.library.illinois.edu/archives/?id=1002&p=creators%2FcreatorArchon
4. Steward, Julian H. Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. University of Illinois Press, 1955. https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Culture-Change-Methodology-Multilinear/dp/0252002954Encyclopedia Britannica+5Amazon+5JSTOR+5
5. “Julian Steward.” New World Encyclopedia. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Julian_StewardNew World Encyclopedia
6. “Julian Steward.” Fiveable. https://library.fiveable.me/key-terms/introduction-cultural-anthropology/julian-stewardFiveable
7. “Cultural Ecology.” Social Science LibreTexts. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Anthropology/Cultural_Anthropology/Cultural_Anthropology_%28Evans%29/03%3A_Anthropological_Theory/3.05%3A_Cultural_EcologySocial Sci LibreTexts
8. “Julian Steward.” Anthropology Theory PBworks. https://anthrotheory.pbworks.com/w/page/29532593/Cultural%20EcologyAnthroTheory
9. “Julian Steward.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Steward
10. “Julian Steward.” National Academy of Sciences. https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001838.html