Maximum Settlement Size: A Compilation

Abstract

In a recent paper, Bowden (1972) argues that the best overall measure of societal complexity or cultural evolution is maximum settlement size. By maximum settlement size is meant the number of people in the largest settlement in the society or ethnic unit. This variable can be operationally defined as the largest cluster of people occurring during the annual cycle-a cluster in turn can be defined as a group of people who sleep on a given night within ten kilometers of a single central point. While census data of course are not commonly collected with this operational definition in mind, they commonly can be applied to the kinds of census reports which in fact occur.Four studies to date have compiled data on maximum settlement size. Two of them (Tatje and Naroll 1970; Naroll and Divale n.d.) use the same definition of maximum settlement size we use here. A third ( Naroll 1956) uses a definition which differs slightly: DEFINITION 1.0. Settlement size. The number of people in the most populous building cluster of the ethnic unit studied. That number is the raw score of the urbanization indicator. DEFINITION 1.1. Building cluster. All those buildings which can be successively interconnected by an imaginary line no more than two hundred meters from one building to the next. In other words, a group of buildings no one of which is more than two hundred meters from some other one in the group.The two hundred meter distance is arbitrary; furthermore, precise measurements are often

Size, Complexity, and Organizational Variation: A Comparative Approach

“…This finding aligns with the aforementioned theoretical approach, in that the intensity of interpersonal contacts is magnified in single settlements as compared to larger societal or national contexts (Figure 1). Obviously, for the latter, people are more dispersed across regional or even macroregional landscapes in which there a few interpersonal contacts (Bowden, 1972;Carneiro, 1967, p. 238;Fletcher, 1995, p. 71;Mayhew & Levinger, 1976;Naroll & Margolies, 1974).…”