Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution is an important topic in the book, The Meme Machine.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spencer/

Herbert Spencer is considered one of the first to notice that there
was such a thing as cultural evolution. Spencer, not Darwin, coined
the term Survival of the Fittest. He is considered to be one of the
founders of Sociology. Spencer believed that cultural evolution led
to greater interpersonal cooperation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Comte

August Comte is the founder of Sociology (he also coined the term
sociology). He also proposed one of the first theories of social
evolution. He believed that societies went through three stages:
theological, metaphysical, and positive.