Dataset Information

Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy.

ABSTRACT: One of the defining trends of the Holocene has been the emergence of complex societies. Two essential features of complex societies are intensive resource use and sociopolitical hierarchy. Although it is widely agreed that these two phenomena are associated cross-culturally and have both contributed to the rise of complex societies, the causality underlying their relationship has been the subject of longstanding debate. Materialist theories of cultural evolution tend to view resource intensification as driving the development of hierarchy, but the reverse order of causation has also been advocated, along with a range of intermediate views. Phylogenetic methods have the potential to test between these different causal models. Here we report the results of a phylogenetic study that modeled the coevolution of one type of resource intensification-the development of landesque capital intensive agriculture-with political complexity and social stratification in a sample of 155 Austronesian-speaking societies. We found support for the coevolution of landesque capital with both political complexity and social stratification, but the contingent and nondeterministic nature of both of these relationships was clear. There was no indication that intensification was the "prime mover" in either relationship. Instead, the relationship between intensification and social stratification was broadly reciprocal, whereas political complexity was more of a driver than a result of intensification. These results challenge the materialist view and emphasize the importance of both material and social factors in the evolution of complex societies, as well as the complex and multifactorial nature of cultural evolution.

SUBMITTER: Sheehan O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5889631 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy.

Sheehan Oliver O Watts Joseph J Gray Russell D RD Atkinson Quentin D QD

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20180319 14

One of the defining trends of the Holocene has been the emergence of complex societies. Two essential features of complex societies are intensive resource use and sociopolitical hierarchy. Although it is widely agreed that these two phenomena are associated cross-culturally and have both contributed to the rise of complex societies, the causality underlying their relationship has been the subject of longstanding debate. Materialist theories of cultural evolution tend to view resource intensifica ...[more]

PMID: 29555760

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Dataset Information

Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy.

Publications

Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy.

Similar Datasets

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