Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization
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Author
Turchin, Peter
Currie, Thomas E.
Whitehouse, Harvey
François, Pieter
Feeney, Kevin
Mullins, Daniel
Hoyer, Daniel
Collins, Christina
Grohmann, Stephanie
Savage, Patrick
Mendel-Gleason, Gavin
Turner, Edward
Dupeyron, Agathe
Cioni, Enrico
Reddish, Jenny
Levine, Jill
Jordan, Greine
Brandl, Eva
Williams, Alice
Cesaretti, Rudolf
Krueger, Marta
Ceccarelli, Alessandro
Figliulo-Rosswurm, Joe
Tuan, Po-Ju
Peregrine, Peter
Marciniak, Arkadiusz
Preiser-Kapeller, Johannes
Kradin, Nikolay
Korotayev, Andrey
Palmisano, Alessio
Baker, David
Bidmead, Julye
Christian, David
Cook, Connie
Covey, Alan
Feinman, Gary
Júlíusson, Árni Daníel
Kristinsson, Axel
Miksic, John
Mostern, Ruth
Petrie, Cameron
Rudiak-Gould, Peter
ter Haar, Barend
Wallace, Vesna
Mair, Victor
Xie, Liye
Baines, John
Bridges, Elizabeth
Manning, Joseph
Lockhart, Bruce
Bogaard, Amy
Spencer, Charles
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors.
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https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708800115Metadata
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Turchin, P., T. E. Currie, H. Whitehouse, P. François, K. Feeney, D. Mullins, D. Hoyer, et al. 2018. “Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (2): E144-E151. doi:10.1073/pnas.1708800115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708800115.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.Other Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5777031/pdf/Terms of Use
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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34869071
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