Final answer:
Cultural evolution describes how cultures change over time, once believed to follow a unilineal path towards 'civilization'. Now, it is understood that cultures evolve through unique, multilinear paths influenced by interactions with other cultures and are not uniformly compared to a single standard of 'progress'. Terms like 'developed' tend to reflect an outdated ethnocentric bias.
Step-by-step explanation:
The notion of cultural evolution refers to the idea that cultures change and develop over time. This was originally conceptualized in the 19th century through the lens of evolutionary schemes, such as those proposed by Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan, which suggested that cultures evolve through stages from 'savagery' to 'barbarism' to 'civilization'. This unilineal approach has since been discredited in favor of recognizing that each culture has a unique historical trajectory, influenced by Franz Boas' theories. Rather than a single line of progress, there are multilinear paths shaped by different cultural interactions, and technological changes play a key role in driving these changes.
Many people continue to hold an ethnocentric bias that classifies countries as 'developed' and 'modern' versus 'undeveloped' and 'backward', often measuring other societies against a Euro-American standard of 'progress'. This labeling system can overlook the complex, individual histories of cultural change and interactions. Furthermore, it does not account for the cultural variety, teleology, and the dynamic and contested nature of culture within and between societies as they adapt to various forces.
Modern anthropology rejects the comparative unilineal models, which assigned cultures to evolutionary stages, and emphasizes the contested and dynamic nature of culture where diverse groups within a society may have different versions of cultural norms. The advancement of technology is seen as one of the several drivers of cultural changes, which result in new social practices.