this universal evolution point of view is rejected by other anthropologists such as Julian Steward. Steward developed an ecological approach that focused on the adaptation of individual cultures to specific environmental circumstances rather than trying to find out the universal law of human evolution and adaptation. He devoted most of his energy to the study of the environmental adaptation of specific societies. He did not believe that cultures followed a single universal sequence of development. Instead, he proposed that cultures could evolve in any number of distinct patterns depending on their environmental circumstances. He called his theory multilinear evolution. He also proposed that cultures in similar environments would tend to follow the same developmental sequences and formulate similar responses to their environmental challenges. (McGee and Warms, 1996) However, the multilinear point of view was not proposed by other anthropologists such as Leslie White. White concludes that unilineal evolutionary theory was fundamentally sound. He argued that evolutionary development from simple to complex, with increasing specialization of parts, was valid bot for cultures and for biology. He also proposed a grand, universal law of cultural evolution by means of the control of energy as the key factor in cultural evolution: culture advances as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per ear increases, or as the efficiency with which energy is utilized increases. (McGee and Warms, 1996) Still, there were other anthropologists who proposed both a multiliear and a universal law of evolution. For example, George Peter Murdock was interested in the statistical testing of cross-cultural hypotheses. His cross-cultural comparisons of cultural traits in many ways paralleled Steward's theory of multilinear evolution. In the meantime, he also believed that a universal set of principle governed the relationship between family structure, kinship, and...
