The evolution of the polity, particularly the transition of chiefdoms to states, has been the sub... more The evolution of the polity, particularly the transition of chiefdoms to states, has been the subject of considerable debate. In this paper, we engage the discussion surrounding the meta-theoretical positions on the tempo of change, specifically whether states emerged gradually from quantitative changes in chiefdom societies – gradualism - or if their appearance was the result of punctuated and qualitative change - punctuated equilibrium. After revisiting the classic debate, we update it with new contributions drawn from the natural and social sciences. We contend that chiefdoms do not simply become states as a result of increases in the size of component parts; instead, punctuated equilibrium, stemming from responses to selection pressures from social forces, has more empirical support than gradualism in explaining state formation. We then take steps toward an integrative model of polity evolution, in which the state emerges as a discrete change resulting from social forces reachin...
Social Change, Resistance and Social Practices, 2010
His most recent books are Vivir del Norte. Remesas, desarrollo y pobreza en México (CONAPO, Méxic... more His most recent books are Vivir del Norte. Remesas, desarrollo y pobreza en México (CONAPO, México, 2008), Panorama actual de las migraciones en América Latina (ALAP, 2006), and Desafíos teórico-metodológicos en los estudios de población en el inicio del milenio (El Colegio de México, 2004, co-author with Susana Lerner).
This paper uses a nested interaction networks approach to interpret patterns of social change in ... more This paper uses a nested interaction networks approach to interpret patterns of social change in the late prehistoric U.S. southwest in comparative and world historical perspective. Place-centric interaction networks are arguably the best way to bound human systemic processes because approaches that attempt to define regions or areas based on attributes necessarily assume homogenous characteristics, whereas interaction itself often produces differences rather than similarities (Chase-Dunn and Jorgenson 2003). The culture area approach that has become institutionalized in the study of the pre-Columbian Americas is impossible to avoid (as below), but the point needs to be made that important interactions occur across the boundaries of the designated regions and interaction within regions produces differences as well as similarities. Networks are the best way to bound systems, but since all actors interact with their neighbors, a place-centric (or object-centric) approach that estimates the fall-off of interactional significance is also required. The comparative world-systems approach (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1997) has adapted the concepts used to study the modern system for the purpose of using world-systems as the unit of analysis in the explanation of human social evolution. Nested networks are used to bound systemic interaction because different kinds of interaction (exchange of bulk goods, fighting and allying, long-distance trade and information flows) have different spatial scales. Core/periphery relations are of great interest but the existence of core/periphery hierarchy is not presumed. Rather the question of exploitation and domination needs to be asked at each of the network levels. Some systems may be based primarily on equal interdependence or equal contests, while others will display hierarchy and power-dependence relations. It should not be assumed that earlier systems are similar to the modern global system in this regard. Rather it should be a question for research on each system. The comparative world-systems theoretical framework contends that whole worldsystems are the best unit of analysis for explaining human sociocultural evolution. One of the strongest supports for this claim is the observation that semiperipheral societies are most often the agents of transformation of culture, technology and forms of power. This is called the hypothesis of "semiperipheral development." Without looking at intersocietal relations it is impossible to see this phenomenon and therefore it is impossible to comprehend a very basic structural feature of socio-cultural evolution. Studies of premodern interaction networks have observe a recurrent pattern of pulsation in which networks expand and contract over time. Expansions of interaction networks occasionally grow greatly in spatial scale to create relatively vast new linkages across previously unconnected spaces. The phenomenon of waves of network integration can be seen in prehistoric Northern California in a system composed of sedentary foragers (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1998). Recent waves of globalization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are a continuation of this phenomenon but now on an Earth-wide scale. And another observation derived from comparing world-systems is that all systems that have hierarchies exhibit a pattern of the rise and fall of powerful polities. The modern rise and fall of hegemonic core states is thus analytically similar to the rise and fall of empires and the rise and fall of paramount chiefdoms. The anthropological literature on chiefdoms refers to this phenomenon as "cycling" (Anderson 1994). Chase-Dunn and Hall (1997) propose an explanation of human social evolution that combines transformations of systemic logic across rather different modes of accumulation with an underlying "iteration model" that posits causal relations among population growth, intensification, population pressure, migration, circumscription, conflict and hierarchy formation and technological change. It is an interaction model because the outcomes (hierarchy formation and technological development) have a positive effect on population growth, and so the model predicts a spiral of world-system expansions. A number of important exogenous variable affect the iteration model. Climate change is mainly an exogenous variable, though local climate may have also been impacted
The evolution of global governance All systems of interacting polities oscillate between relative... more The evolution of global governance All systems of interacting polities oscillate between relatively greater and lesser centralization as relatively large polities rise and fall. This is true of systems of chiefdoms, states, empires and the modern system of the rise and fall of hegemonic core states. But there has also been a long-term trend in which polities have increased in population and territorial size since the Stone Age and the total number of polities has decreased. These trends have been somewhat masked in recent centuries because the processes of decolonization and the emergence of nation-states out of older tributary empires have increased the number of smaller polities. But the general trend toward larger polities can be seen in the transition from smaller to larger hegemonic core states (from the Dutch to the British and to the United States), and in the emergence of international political organizations and an expanded and active global civil society that participates in contemporary world politics (Arrighi 1994; Grinin and Korotayev 2006). This paper reports preliminary results from a project that is assembling and analyzing data on the population sizes of cities and the territorial sizes of empires and is constructing causal models that explain changes in the scale of human settlements and polities and potential future world state formation. 1 We empirically identify "upward sweeps", when the scale of cities and states dramatically increased. We review and synthesize explanations of chiefdomformation, state-formation, empire-formation and the rise and fall of modern hegemonic core states in order to produce formal explanatory models. And we study the emergent characteristics that distinguish these different scales in order to comprehend how the processes have qualitatively evolved, and in order to consider what kinds of qualitative transformation might occur in the future. Our approach avoids the unscientific pitfalls of progressivist, functionalist, inevitabalist and teleological presumptions that have plagued many earlier approaches
Cliodynamics the Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical History, 2011
... Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Drs. Randall Collins and Peter Turchin for ... more ... Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Drs. Randall Collins and Peter Turchin for their help and advice in producing this draft. The communicating author is Jesse Fletcher ([email protected]). Do not cite without permission. ...
The evolution of the polity, particularly the transition of chiefdoms to states, has been the sub... more The evolution of the polity, particularly the transition of chiefdoms to states, has been the subject of considerable debate. In this paper, we engage the discussion surrounding the meta-theoretical positions on the tempo of change, specifically whether states emerged gradually from quantitative changes in chiefdom societies – gradualism - or if their appearance was the result of punctuated and qualitative change - punctuated equilibrium. After revisiting the classic debate, we update it with new contributions drawn from the natural and social sciences. We contend that chiefdoms do not simply become states as a result of increases in the size of component parts; instead, punctuated equilibrium, stemming from responses to selection pressures from social forces, has more empirical support than gradualism in explaining state formation. We then take steps toward an integrative model of polity evolution, in which the state emerges as a discrete change resulting from social forces reachin...
Social Change, Resistance and Social Practices, 2010
His most recent books are Vivir del Norte. Remesas, desarrollo y pobreza en México (CONAPO, Méxic... more His most recent books are Vivir del Norte. Remesas, desarrollo y pobreza en México (CONAPO, México, 2008), Panorama actual de las migraciones en América Latina (ALAP, 2006), and Desafíos teórico-metodológicos en los estudios de población en el inicio del milenio (El Colegio de México, 2004, co-author with Susana Lerner).
This paper uses a nested interaction networks approach to interpret patterns of social change in ... more This paper uses a nested interaction networks approach to interpret patterns of social change in the late prehistoric U.S. southwest in comparative and world historical perspective. Place-centric interaction networks are arguably the best way to bound human systemic processes because approaches that attempt to define regions or areas based on attributes necessarily assume homogenous characteristics, whereas interaction itself often produces differences rather than similarities (Chase-Dunn and Jorgenson 2003). The culture area approach that has become institutionalized in the study of the pre-Columbian Americas is impossible to avoid (as below), but the point needs to be made that important interactions occur across the boundaries of the designated regions and interaction within regions produces differences as well as similarities. Networks are the best way to bound systems, but since all actors interact with their neighbors, a place-centric (or object-centric) approach that estimates the fall-off of interactional significance is also required. The comparative world-systems approach (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1997) has adapted the concepts used to study the modern system for the purpose of using world-systems as the unit of analysis in the explanation of human social evolution. Nested networks are used to bound systemic interaction because different kinds of interaction (exchange of bulk goods, fighting and allying, long-distance trade and information flows) have different spatial scales. Core/periphery relations are of great interest but the existence of core/periphery hierarchy is not presumed. Rather the question of exploitation and domination needs to be asked at each of the network levels. Some systems may be based primarily on equal interdependence or equal contests, while others will display hierarchy and power-dependence relations. It should not be assumed that earlier systems are similar to the modern global system in this regard. Rather it should be a question for research on each system. The comparative world-systems theoretical framework contends that whole worldsystems are the best unit of analysis for explaining human sociocultural evolution. One of the strongest supports for this claim is the observation that semiperipheral societies are most often the agents of transformation of culture, technology and forms of power. This is called the hypothesis of "semiperipheral development." Without looking at intersocietal relations it is impossible to see this phenomenon and therefore it is impossible to comprehend a very basic structural feature of socio-cultural evolution. Studies of premodern interaction networks have observe a recurrent pattern of pulsation in which networks expand and contract over time. Expansions of interaction networks occasionally grow greatly in spatial scale to create relatively vast new linkages across previously unconnected spaces. The phenomenon of waves of network integration can be seen in prehistoric Northern California in a system composed of sedentary foragers (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1998). Recent waves of globalization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are a continuation of this phenomenon but now on an Earth-wide scale. And another observation derived from comparing world-systems is that all systems that have hierarchies exhibit a pattern of the rise and fall of powerful polities. The modern rise and fall of hegemonic core states is thus analytically similar to the rise and fall of empires and the rise and fall of paramount chiefdoms. The anthropological literature on chiefdoms refers to this phenomenon as "cycling" (Anderson 1994). Chase-Dunn and Hall (1997) propose an explanation of human social evolution that combines transformations of systemic logic across rather different modes of accumulation with an underlying "iteration model" that posits causal relations among population growth, intensification, population pressure, migration, circumscription, conflict and hierarchy formation and technological change. It is an interaction model because the outcomes (hierarchy formation and technological development) have a positive effect on population growth, and so the model predicts a spiral of world-system expansions. A number of important exogenous variable affect the iteration model. Climate change is mainly an exogenous variable, though local climate may have also been impacted
The evolution of global governance All systems of interacting polities oscillate between relative... more The evolution of global governance All systems of interacting polities oscillate between relatively greater and lesser centralization as relatively large polities rise and fall. This is true of systems of chiefdoms, states, empires and the modern system of the rise and fall of hegemonic core states. But there has also been a long-term trend in which polities have increased in population and territorial size since the Stone Age and the total number of polities has decreased. These trends have been somewhat masked in recent centuries because the processes of decolonization and the emergence of nation-states out of older tributary empires have increased the number of smaller polities. But the general trend toward larger polities can be seen in the transition from smaller to larger hegemonic core states (from the Dutch to the British and to the United States), and in the emergence of international political organizations and an expanded and active global civil society that participates in contemporary world politics (Arrighi 1994; Grinin and Korotayev 2006). This paper reports preliminary results from a project that is assembling and analyzing data on the population sizes of cities and the territorial sizes of empires and is constructing causal models that explain changes in the scale of human settlements and polities and potential future world state formation. 1 We empirically identify "upward sweeps", when the scale of cities and states dramatically increased. We review and synthesize explanations of chiefdomformation, state-formation, empire-formation and the rise and fall of modern hegemonic core states in order to produce formal explanatory models. And we study the emergent characteristics that distinguish these different scales in order to comprehend how the processes have qualitatively evolved, and in order to consider what kinds of qualitative transformation might occur in the future. Our approach avoids the unscientific pitfalls of progressivist, functionalist, inevitabalist and teleological presumptions that have plagued many earlier approaches
Cliodynamics the Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical History, 2011
... Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Drs. Randall Collins and Peter Turchin for ... more ... Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Drs. Randall Collins and Peter Turchin for their help and advice in producing this draft. The communicating author is Jesse Fletcher ([email protected]). Do not cite without permission. ...
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