Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization.
Peter Turchin,Thomas E. Currie,Harvey Whitehouse,Pieter Francois,Kevin Feeney,Daniel Austin Mullins,Daniel Austin Mullins,Daniel Hoyer,Christina Collins,Stephanie Grohmann,Patrick E. Savage,Gavin Mendel-Gleason,Edward Turner,Agathe Dupeyron,Enrico Cioni,Jenny Reddish,Jill Levine,Greine Jordan,Eva Brandl,Alice Williams,Rudolf Cesaretti,Marta Krueger,Alessandro Ceccarelli,Joe Figliulo-Rosswurm,Po-Ju Tuan,Peter N. Peregrine,Peter N. Peregrine,Arkadiusz Marciniak,Johannes Preiser-Kapeller,Nikolay N. Kradin,Andrey Korotayev,Alessio Palmisano,David Baker,Julye Bidmead,Peter K. Bol,David Christian,Connie Cook,Connie Cook,Alan Covey,Gary M. Feinman,Árni Daníel Júlíusson,Axel Kristinsson,John N. Miksic,Ruth Mostern,Cameron A. Petrie,Peter Rudiak-Gould,Barend J. ter Haar,Vesna Wallace,Victor H. Mair,Liye Xie,John Baines,Elizabeth Page Bridges,Joseph G. Manning,Bruce M. Lockhart,Amy Bogaard,Charles S. Spencer +55 more
TLDR
A database of historical and archaeological information from 30 regions around the world over the last 10,000 years revealed that characteristics, such as social scale, economy, features of governance, and information systems, show strong evolutionary relationships with each other and that complexity of a society across different world regions can be meaningfully measured using a single principal component of variation.Abstract:
Do human societies from around the world exhibit similarities in the way that they are structured, and show commonalities in the ways that they have evolved? These are long-standing questions that have proven difficult to answer. To test between competing hypotheses, we constructed a massive repository of historical and archaeological information known as “Seshat: Global History Databank.” We systematically coded data on 414 societies from 30 regions around the world spanning the last 10,000 years. We were able to capture information on 51 variables reflecting nine characteristics of human societies, such as social scale, economy, features of governance, and information systems. Our analyses revealed that these different characteristics show strong relationships with each other and that a single principal component captures around three-quarters of the observed variation. Furthermore, we found that different characteristics of social complexity are highly predictable across different world regions. These results suggest that key aspects of social organization are functionally related and do indeed coevolve in predictable ways. Our findings highlight the power of the sciences and humanities working together to rigorously test hypotheses about general rules that may have shaped human history.read more
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Complex Population Dynamics: A Theoretical/Empirical Synthesis
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The Evolution of Culture
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Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history
Harvey Whitehouse,Pieter Francois,Patrick E. Savage,Patrick E. Savage,Thomas E. Currie,Kevin Feeney,Enrico Cioni,Rosalind Purcell,Robert M. Ross,Robert M. Ross,Robert M. Ross,Jennifer Larson,John Baines,Barend ter Haar,Alan Covey,Peter Turchin +15 more
TL;DR: Analysis of records from 414 societies that span the past 10,000 years from 30 regions around the world reveals that moralizing gods follow—rather than precede—large increases in social complexity.
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