Sociocultural evolution is a theoretical perspective in sociology and anthropology that examines the long-term process of change and development in human societies and cultures over time, resulting from the cumulative growth and transmission of their stores of cultural information, knowledge, technologies, and practices across generations. This perspective suggests that societies evolve and become more complex through processes of innovation, adaptation, and the accumulation of cultural capital, leading to transformations in social organisation, technology, economic systems, values, and beliefs. Unlike earlier, often deterministic theories of social evolution, more contemporary approaches recognise that sociocultural evolution is a complex, multilinear process influenced by a variety of factors, including environmental conditions, intergroup interactions, and internal dynamics within societies, and that it does not necessarily follow a fixed or predetermined path.