Social Complexity

With the beginning of agriculture, the history of humankind experienced a quantum leap: sedentism and regular harvests led to population growth and more complex forms of political organisation. However, this transition did not proceed as abruptly as is often thought. Rather, this complex process in Central Europe took place over many centuries, between 6500 and 3500 BC. This milestone in the history of civilization is vividly explained in this richly illustrated volume with a focus on the German-speaking part of Europe. Well-known experts present the latest research results using meaningful and exciting examples (Cover text by the publisher).

Mit dem Beginn der Landwirtschaft erlebte die Geschichte der Menschheit einen Quantensprung: Sesshaftigkeit und regelmäßige Ernten zogen ein Bevölkerungswachstum nach sich und es kam zu komplexeren gesellschaftlichen Strukturen. Allerdings verlief dieser Übergang nicht so abrupt wie immer wieder dargestellt. Vielmehr vollzog sich jener vielschichtige Prozess in Mitteleuropa über viele Jahrhunderte zwischen ca. 6500 und 3500 v.Chr. Dieser Meilenstein in der Zivilisationsgeschichte wird in dem reich bebilderten Band mit Fokus auf dem deutschsprachigen Raum anschaulich erläutert. Renommierte Fachleute präsentieren die neuesten Forschungsergebnisse anhand von aussagekräftigen und spannenden Beispielen (Umschlagtext des Verlages).

"PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
(Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011)

The notion of evolution is not popular in contemporary Anthropology. Many researchers do not use it preferring to write about transformation,
transit, or change. Evolution for them is synonymous to dogmatic understanding of human history (Yoffee 2005; Pauketat 2008). However,
even critics of evolutionism do not appear to reject= the very fact of continuous social change. In prehistory people were hunters and gatherers and were integrated in small bands. Later some of them experienced sedentarization and transition to food production, began to found towns and invent complex tools. It would be ridiculous to reject such changes. Another point is that contemporary vision of cultural transformations differs greatly from the naïve ideas of the 19th century evolutionists (see, e.g., Earle 2002; Claessen 2000; Carneiro 2003, Marcus 2008; Hanks, Linduff 2009; Earle, Kristiansen 2010 etc.). Contemporary approaches are more flexible and are based on a much more considerable set of evidence. That is why it would be wrong to criticize the scholars of the past for their knowledge of something worse than ours. They ought to be estimated in comparison with their contemporaries. So, we believe that the notion of evolution has a right to exist, and for already several decades we have been elaborating the ideas that can be called “new wave evolutionism”, or multievolutionism (non-linear evolution theory).
The first edition of the present volume was published over ten years ago, in 2000, in two languages, English and Russian (under the Альтернативные пути к цивилизации [Alternative pathways to the civilization] title given by the publisher for commercial reasons). It was the response of the then young generation of post-Soviet anthropologists in league with prominent Western and Russian scholars to dogmatic Marxist interpretations of older, Soviet ethnologists and archaeologists (see also Korotayev, Chubarov 1991; Kradin, Lynsha 1995). Several other collective edited volumes (Bondarenko, Korotayev 2000; Kradin, Bondarenko, Barfield 2003; Grinin et al 2004; Bondarenko, Nemirovsky 2007; Grinin, Beliaev, Korotayev 2008 etc.), monographs (Korotayev 1995; 1996; 2003; Bondarenko 2001; 2006; Korotayev et al 2006; Kradin, Skrynnikova 2006; Grinin 2007; Kradin 2007; 2010; Grinin, Korotayev 2009) and journal articles (Beliaev, Bondarenko, Korotayev 2001; Kradin 2002; Bondarenko, Korotayev 2003; Bondarenko 2007a; 2007b) have appeared since then. Five “Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations” international conferences held in Moscow and St. Petersburg between 2000 and 2009 turned out very important for elaboration of the non-linear sociocultural evolution theory. The Social Evolution & History English-language journal published in Russia since 2002 has become a venue for discussion of the non-linear evolution theory, ideas and evidence related to it. In particular, besides an impressive number of separate articles, the following special issues and sections, among others, have been published in it: Exploring the Horizons of Big History (2005, Vol. 4, No 1), Thirty Years of Early State Research (2008, Vol. 7, No1), The Early State in Anthropological Theory (2009, Vol. 8, No 1), Analyses of Cultural Evolution (2009, Vol. 8, No 2), Urbanization, Regional Diversity and the Problem of State Formation in Europe (2010, Vol. 9, No 2). One more discussion, Chiefdoms in the process of social evolution: theory, problems and comparative studies, is to appear in
the Journal soon (was published in 2011 as Vol.10, Iss. 1. - D.B.).
Alternatives of Social Evolution consists of five parts. The first part includes theoretical studies of non-linear evolution. Articles on the alternative pathways of the prehistoric societies’ evolution form the volume’s second part. The evolutionary pathways of complex societies and state origins are the topics of the volume’s third and forth parts. The closing part is devoted to nomadic societies. We hope that the book has not lost its relevance and will remain in demand by readers."

"Issues of formation and evolution of the early (archaic) state continue to remain among those problems which have not found their generally accepted solutions yet. Contributors to The Early State , Its Alternatives and Analogues represent both traditional and non-traditional points of view on the evolution of statehood. However, the data presented in the volume seem to demonstrate in a fairly convincing manner a great diversity of pathways to statehood, as well as non-universality of transformation into states of complex and even supercomplex societies. The diversity of sociopolitical forms, non-unilinearity of social evolution, presence of alternatives / analogues of the early state and complexity of state formation process far exceeding the ones indicated by conventional evolutionist schemes can be regarded as general ideas going through most contributions to the volume.


Contents


Introduction


Part I: Theory

1 Alternatives of Social Evolution ………………………………… 3

Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Leonid E. Grinin, and Andrey V. Korotayev

2 Was the Chiefdom a Congelation of Ideas? …………………… 28

Robert L. Carneiro

3 Beyond States and Empires: Chiefdoms and Informal Politics 46

Patrick Chabal, Gary Feinman, and Peter Skalnik

4 Alternative Models of Middle Range Society.

‘Individualistic' Asia vs . ‘Collectivistic' America ? …………… 61

Yuri E. Berezkin

5 Was the State Inevitable? ………………………………………… 72

Henri J. M. Claessen

6 The Early State and Its Analogues: A Comparative Analysis 88

Leonid E. Grinin


Part II: Early States

7 Early Dynastic Egypt : A Socio-Environmental/Anthropological

Hypothesis of ‘Unification' ………………………………………. 139

Dmitri B. Proussakov

8 The Ruler as Possessor of Power in Sumer …………………….. 181

Vladimir V. Emelianov

9 Ritual and Rationality:

Religious Roots of the Bureaucratic State in Ancient China 196

Richard Baum

10 Conquest Warfare, Strategies of Resistance, and the Rise

of the Zapotec Early State ……………………………………… 220

Charles S. Spencer and Elsa M. Redmond

11 The Pristine Myth of the Pristine State in America ……………. 262

Richard P. Schaedel and David G. Robinson

12 The Transition to Statehood in Central Europe ………………. 278

Ludomir R. Lozny

13 Formation and Development of States in the Congo Basin …… 288

Eleonora S. L'vova


Part III: Sedentary Alternatives and Analogues

14 The Chiefdom: Precursor of the Tribe? (Some Trends of Political

Evolution in North-East Yemeni Highlands) …………………… 300

Andrey V. Korotayev

15 From Local Communities to Megacommunity: Biniland

in the 1 st Millennium B.C.–19 th Century A.D. ………………… 325

Dmitri M. Bondarenko

16 Greece : The Stateless Polis (11 th – 4 th С enturies B.C.) …………. 364

Moshe Berent

17 Rome : Socio-political Evolution in the 8 th – 2 nd Centuries B.C. 388

Dmitri V. Dozhdev

18 Early State and Democra с y ……………………………………… 419

Leonid E. Grinin


Part IV. Nomadic Alternatives and Analogues

19 Cultural Capital, Livestock Raiding, and the Military Advantage

of Traditional Pastoralists ……………………………………… 466

William Irons

20 Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in Historical Retrospective 476

Anatoly M. Khazanov

21 Nomadic Empires in Evolutionary Perspective ………………… 501

Nikolay N. Kradin

22 Mongolian Nomadic Society of the Empire Period …………… 525

Tatyana D. Skrynnikova"

In this article we analyze processes and scales of global integration in historical perspective, starting with the Agrarian Revolution. We connect the main phases of historical globalization with the processes of the development of the Afroeurasian world-system. In the framework of the Afroeurasian world-system the integration began several millennia BCE. In it the continental and supracontinental links became so developed long before the Great Geographic Discoveries and thus they could well be denoted as global (albeit in a somehow limited sense). Among some researchers there is still a tendency to underestimate the scale of those links in the pre-Industrial era; thus, it appeared necessary to provide additional empirical support for our statement. It also turned necessary to apply a special methodology (which necessitated the use of the world-system approach). We analyze some versions of periodization of globalization history. We also propose our own periodization of the globalization history basing on the growth of the scale of intersocietal links as an indicator of the level of globalization development. On Goals and Tasks of the Article In the framework of this article we attempt to solve the following tasks: 1) to demonstrate that it was already a few thousand years ago (at least since the formation of the system of long-distance large-scale trade in metals in the 4 th millennium BCE) when the scale of systematic trade relationships overgrew signifi cantly the local level and became regional (and even transcontinental in a certain sense); 2) to show that already in the late 1 st millennium BCE the scale of processes and links within the Afroeurasian world-system did not only exceed the regional level, it did not only reach the continental level, but it also went beyond continental limits. That is why we contend that within this system marginal systemic contacts between agents of various levels (from societies to individuals) may be defi ned as transcontinental (note that here we are dealing not with overland contacts only, as since the late 1 st millennium BCE in some cases we confront oceanic contacts – the most salient case is represented here by the Indian Ocean communication network;

When we have the ability to destroy Earth's carrying capacity and equilibrium, do we not equally have the ability to repair them and put them — and ourselves — back in balance again? The article argues that we can and should, but that this requires fundamental changes, beginning with no less than the rewriting of the basic narrative of mankind. We currently live the narrative of modernity, with a very appealing plot and storylines, telling us that we can emancipate from nature and master nature through science and technology, creating a never-ending process of societal growth and development, in a straight line towards ever more progress. The narrative of modernity indeed is appealing but has proven to be largely false. The article argues that we need a new narrative of planetary consciousness that, like the one of modernity, should appeal to us offering a promising plot that drives and motivates us, but in a socially and ecologically safe direction. This is the cultural challenge sustainability presents us with. The chapter explores a shift away from modernity to planetary consciousness in terms of a number of key changes, more in particular the change towards embodiment, as being in the world searching for connectedness instead of emancipation, complexity thinking and transdisciplinarity, embracing multiple criteria of progress and wellbeing, polyphony and dialogue, accepting multiple truths, and finally arts-based and artful ways of working, being reflective constantly evaluating the consequences of our actions.

""Abstract Investigations of the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation and collective action provide productive venues for theorizing social complexity, yet this multidisciplinary scholarship contains analytical and epistemological tensions that require reconciliation. We propose a course for integration of this diverse literature to investigate the emergence and developmental trajectories of complex societies.
Greater attention to collective action problems, cultural mechanisms that promote cooperation, differentiation of human interests, and multiscalar research designs provide firmer conceptual underpinnings for a theoretically grounded cultural evolutionary framework. The case of agricultural intensification in pre-Hispanic highland Mexico is used to illustrate major points of the paper.

Keywords Cooperation . Collective action . Cultural evolution . Agricultural
intensification""

Published in: Sven Kalmring · Lukas Werther (eds.), HÄFEN IM 1. MILLENNIUM AD. STANDORTBEDINGUNGEN,  ENTWICKLUNGSMODELLE UND ÖKONOMISCHE VERNETZUNG. Mainz 2017, see: https://shop.rgzm.de/de/wissenschaftliche-reihen/rgzm-tagungen/haefen-1-millennium-ad (in German)

Embedding certain harbors into a large-scale system of logistics could illustrate the peculiarities and similarities
between local and empire-wide economic patterns. Such kind of methodology also helps us to find an explanation
for the existing differences. Tracing the divergences in the distribution of Late Antique pottery in Butrint, Durrës and
Shkodër leads to the conclusion that Durrës and Shkodër belonged to a transport cluster that covers the Adriatic
Sea and Northern Epirus. Butrint on the other hand belongs to another cluster comprising the northwestern areas of
Central Greece, Northern Peloponnese and the Ionian Sea. The distribution of coins minted in Syracuse from the 7th
to 9th century and found during excavations in Butrint underlines the importance of the sea route Sicily – Southern
Italy – the Ionian Sea – the Aegean and corresponds to the ORBIS Model and the data about the networks of the
kommerkiarioi. The findings of Glazed White Ware I produced in Constantinople in various Balkan settlements such
as Butrint, Debeltos and Anchialos demonstrate the networks maintained by the capital. The different types of cluster
dealing with connections and communication via sea routes offered the base for the reestablishment of trade networks
in the Mediterranean since the 9th century. As Michael McCormick states: »by 800, multiple circuits were connecting
again, linking the growing agrarian economies and political societies of Western Europe to each other, and back to
the Middle East.« This process of reintegration of local maritime networks in the economic system of the High Middle
Ages represents one of the main objectives of the SPP 1630.

Despite its longstanding preeminence as one of the earliest, largest, and most complex urban centers of highland Mexico, Teotihuacan’s pan-regional impact on Mesoamerica remains the subject of intense debate and conflicting models centering on the rise of social complexity in the American hemisphere. Therefore, this study seeks to address the interplay and operationalization of resource concentration, multiethnic mosaics, and corporate interaction and inter-elite conflict within and beyond the context of the preindustrial metropolis of Teotihuacan. Findings from this review predictably indicate that the ancient highland polity was borne of but one of a host of Late Formative compound chiefdoms situated in the Basin of Mexico, albeit on a semiarid plain that necessitated the formation of an incipient managerial elite devoted to the management of the region’s hydraulic resources. While water management per se may be construed an initial stimulus to the formation of sociopolitical complexity in the highlands, the authors contend that this fact alone did not distinguish Teotihuacan, or for that matter, render it a competitive advantage over other early polities of the region. Its uniqueness, they argue, was borne of (a) its strategic location proximate to both major obsidian deposits and a highland transport network to the Gulf lowlands, (b) a pattern of recurrent demographic restructuring occasioned by the cataclysmic eruptions of Popocatépetl, Malinche, and Xitle, (c) the formation of multiethnic mosaics and foreign enclaves both within and beyond the metropolis as a result of the two foregoing conditions, and by extension, (d) the emergence of multiethnic corporate groups dedicated to commerce and industry centered on Teotihuacan. In an effort to fully interrogate the extant evidence for the evolution of social complexity in the Basin of Mexico, the authors extend the analysis to those findings bearing on the troubled times of the Late Middle Classic/Epiclassic decline, collapse, and destruction of the ancient metropolis and its far flung outposts. In the final analysis, a review of that evidence bearing on the question of what ultimately became of Teotihuacan in the wake of its disintegration reveals a pattern of escalating internal conflict, militarization, and a balkanization and recapitulation of the constituent multiethnic mosaics that defined the cosmopolitan and multicultural origins of the metropolis from the outset.

Central Asia is commonly referred to as a pastoral realm, and the first millennium B.C. is often thought to mark a period of increased mobility and reliance on animal husbandry. The economic shift of the first millennium B.C. is usually interpreted as a transition toward specialized pastoralism in Central Asia, and the point in time when the Central Asian 'nomads' or Scythians appear. However, in this paper, we present evidence for farming, including the introduction of new crops, at four archaeological sites across the Talgar alluvial fan of southeastern Kazakhstan. In addition, we contrast this data with piecemeal evidence for agriculture at three other sites in the broader foothill ecocline of eastern Central Asia. Collectively, these data show that the people in this region were cultivating free-threshing wheat and hulled barley (long-season grain crops), as well as broomcorn and foxtail millet. There is also evidence for viticulture. These data warrant a reevaluation of the 'nomad'-based model for Iron Age economy in this region. This article highlights the need for further investigation into the links between agricultural intensity leading to grain surpluses, increasing exchange through Eurasia, cultural stratification, craft specialization, and population growth among peoples in the foothills of eastern Central Asia during the first millennium B.C.

Big History emerged as part of this non-linear way of understanding
the world. What we discovered in working together is that the insights
of complexity theory, which studies the dynamics of non-linear systems,
integrate powerfully with Big History. On one hand, it offers an approach to the dynamics, grounded in work in physics, chemistry and biology, that Big History studies. On the other, it offers an avenue to a more comprehensive view of the challenges and possible solutions of a non-linear world.

Owens and Kantabutra. “Using Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) to simulate, within the context of the Intentionally-Linked Entities (ILE) database management system, missing information: To explain self-organization and emergence in world commercial and political networks during the First Global Age, 1400-1800.”
Paper for the session “Social Network Analysis and Multi-Relational Databases on Comparative Studies in China and Europe”; 18th World Economic History Congress, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, July 29-August 3, 2018 [Tues., 31 July, Session A, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm, Room 5: Samberg Conference Center, MIT]

We report on the project history, survey, ceramics, and the Main Street and Gallery III.4 excavations of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) Heit el-Ghurab settlement site, located about 400 meters south of the Great Sphinx at Giza.