The beginning of evolutionary thought in the study of culture and society can be traced to the intellectual climate of the nineteenth century, when European scholars attempted to explain social differences and similarities through the idea of development over time. Influenced by the broader scientific revolution and especially by Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution, early social thinkers began to apply the concept of evolution to human societies. They assumed that societies progress from simple to complex forms and that cultural differences reflect different stages in a universal sequence of development. One of the earliest contributors to evolutionary thought in social theory was Auguste Comte, often regarded as the father of sociology. Comte proposed the “Law of Three Stages,” arguing that human thought evolves from the theological stage, through the metaphysical stage, and finally to the positive or scientific stage. Though Comte’s framework was primarily concerned with intellectual development, it laid the foundation for later evolutionary models by suggesting that societies move through identifiable and progressive stages. Herbert Spencer further developed evolutionary ideas by directly borrowing from biological evolution. He introduced the concept of “survival of the fittest” and applied it to social institutions and societies. Spencer argued that societies evolve from simple, homogeneous structures to complex, heterogeneous ones, becoming more differentiated and integrated over time. For Spencer, social evolution was a natural and