Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations

Giuliano, Paola; Nunn, Nathan

doi:10.1080/20780389.2018.1435267

Cited by 60 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Table 3 shows correlations between the traditional law indicators and historical as well as geographical variables. Societies that permit cousin marriage, coded according to the instructions by Rijpma and Carmichael (2016) and using data by Giuliano and Nunn (2018), are more likely to recognize religious law, which is consistent with our second hypothesis. However, this result might be driven by…”

Section: Hypothesessupporting

confidence: 81%

Traditional law in times of the nation state: why is it so prevalent?

Gutmann

Voigt

2020

Journal of Institutional Economics

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AbstractIn many modern nation states, both rich and poor, traditional law to this day plays an important role. Given the almost universal prevalence of traditional law, it is surprising how little we know about it. This is the first study that tries to take stock of traditional law from a cross-country perspective. We are also interested in the compatibility of traditional law with state-enforced law and, in particular, with the basic traits of the rule of law. Based on a sample of up to 134 countries, we find that no ‘typical’ traditional law exists, but that traditional law varies in many dimensions such as its timely enforcement, its impartiality, and its protection of basic human rights. Societies that rely extensively on traditional law score low regarding both the rule of law and per capita income. Historical and geographical factors are important predictors of the contemporaneous reliance on traditional law. State antiquity, for example, reduces the prevalence of traditional law, as does a high share of descendants from European populations.

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Section: Hypothesessupporting

confidence: 81%

Traditional law in times of the nation state: why is it so prevalent?

Gutmann

Voigt

2020

Journal of Institutional Economics

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“…Secondary outcome variable . The political complexity variable is constructed from the ethnographic atlas provided by Giuliano and Nunn [ 53 ]. The variable is v33: jurisdictional hierarchy beyond local community.…”

Section: Theories and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I use the ancestral characteristics of modern populations data [ 53 ] various versions of which have been used extensively in many cross-cultural studies and its credibility has been documented by anthropologists, economists and other social scientists. The data are available here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/nunn/pages/data-0 , https://worldmap.harvard.edu/data/geonode:murdock_ea_2010_3 or https://github.com/sboysel/murdock .…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Mancala board games and origins of entrepreneurship in Africa

Mkondiwa

2020

PLoS ONE

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This study examines the correlational relationship between the historical playing of indigenous strategic board games (also called mancala) and the socio-economic complexity of African ethnic groups as well as the incidence of entrepreneurial pursuits. Anthropology literature suggests that these games may be associated with socio-economic complexity of the ethnic groups—the so-called games in culture hypothesis. I revisit this hypothesis with better data and motivated by anecdotal evidence, introduce a contemporary hypothesis, origins of entrepreneurship hypothesis—that descendants of societies that played complex mancala games are more likely to be engaged in non-farm self-employment today. I compile the first comprehensive database of mancala games in Africa matched to ancestral characteristics data, and for 18 African countries, to the Afrobarometer survey data. Using historical and contemporary data, I do not find evidence for either hypothesis. Despite the null results, I explore how related hypotheses and studies can build on the comprehensive mancala database.

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“…The analysis thus strengthens the hypothesis that the Church's MFP impacted human psychology through its effect on kinship intensity. 44 (iii) The analysis uses individual-level responses, which allow us to control for individual characteristics. This is particularly relevant for religious denomination.…”

Section: S4 European Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, with intensive kin-based institutions, people's psychological processes adapt to the collectivistic demands and the dense social networks that they interweave (39-43). Intensive kinship norms reward greater conformity, obedience, holistic/relational awareness and in-group loyalty but discourage individualism, independence and analytical thinking (41,44). Since the sociality of intensive kinship is based on people's interpersonal embeddedness, adapting to these institutions tends to reduce people's inclinations towards impartiality, universal (non-relational) moral principles and impersonal trust, fairness and cooperation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

Schulz¹,

Barahmi-Rad²,

Beauchamp³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Recent research not only confirms the existence of substantial psychological variation around the globe but also highlights the peculiarity of populations that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD). We propose that much of this variation arose as people psychologically adapted to differing kin-based institutions—the set of social norms governing descent, marriage, residence and related domains. We further propose that part of the variation in these institutions arose historically from the Catholic Church’s marriage and family policies, which contributed to the dissolution of Europe’s traditional kin-based institutions, leading eventually to the predominance of nuclear families and impersonal institutions. By combining data on 20 psychological outcomes with historical measures of both kinship and Church exposure, we find support for these ideas in a comprehensive array of analyses across countries, among European regions and between individuals with different cultural backgrounds.

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Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations

Cited by 60 publications

References 40 publications

Traditional law in times of the nation state: why is it so prevalent?

Traditional law in times of the nation state: why is it so prevalent?

Mancala board games and origins of entrepreneurship in Africa

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

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