O Tempora O Mores: Building an Epistemological Procedure for Modeling the Socio-anthropological Factors of Rural Neolithic Socio-ecological Systems: Stakes, Choices, Hypotheses, and Constraints

Abstract

Trying to model a rural society, and even more so a past and disappeared rural society, is a dangerous task in the sense that we deal with the complexity of a whole society whatever the purpose of the model, to integrate and / or to simplify in a proper manner. This article deals with this complexity mainly by exploring the least risky way to apprehend it: starting from the question to be modelled, it is possible to gradually define the different scales, the set of variables to be considered and therefore the disciplines to be included and mobilised. Then comes only the evaluation of the data quality criteria but also of their source. We are continuing with the scheduling of modules describing the environment itself, the resource use practices and finally societal rules. Finally, we discuss the methodological, social and professional constraints in involving people in the creation of such models.

Some like it complex: building a common multidisciplinarity background from local experiences within the South-Mediterranean environmental research communities

“…The problem is that humans do not order things and act accordingly in the same way, thereby justifying with this sole argument the value of social (Saqalli, 2020), the methodological process of building and providing arguments to establish the criteria/criterion able to establish the exhaustivity regarding disciplines and processes for the study of the system, the stake, or the issue we considered;…”

“…Actually, one may consider the first two points as the methodological bedrock for acknowledging the primordial position of social sciences (with primordial in its etymological meaning: first to consider), solely because humans, the main natural force activating and transforming territories especially along Mediterranean mostly urbanized shores, are driven by social factors. One should then point out that not considering this main natural force is a bias and there are already methodological tools, such as socio-anthropological agentbased modeling (Saqalli, 2020), to combine social information, including from qualitative socio-anthropological methods, and biophysical data and dynamics, each one in its rank and with its weight. Not considering social sciences because "we do not have enough data" is not a scientific argument (Saqalli, 2020);…”

“…One should then point out that not considering this main natural force is a bias and there are already methodological tools, such as socio-anthropological agentbased modeling (Saqalli, 2020), to combine social information, including from qualitative socio-anthropological methods, and biophysical data and dynamics, each one in its rank and with its weight. Not considering social sciences because "we do not have enough data" is not a scientific argument (Saqalli, 2020);…”

“…• According to the first point and even if the SES concept is initially originated from a mostly biophysical point of view and following Stojanovic et al (2016) or Saqalli (2020), the study of present-time environmental components and SES implies considering anthropic actions and motives (including demographic and socio-economic) as the most important environmental driver by far;…”

“…Indeed, SES, especially those that are very anthropized such as the Mediterranean, are difficult to characterize because of the systems' complexity involving many components all interacting with one another. To understand and study such complex systems requires taking into consideration both biophysical and social indicators in a wellorganized multidisciplinary scientific approach, yet to be built (Rouchier and Requier-Desjardins, 2000;Schmidt-Lainé and Pavé, 2002;Metzger and d'Ercole, 2009;Hamel, 2010;Marignani et al, 2017). There is a tremendous amount of literature regarding the inherent multidisciplinarity to be considered for assessing research programs on such socio-environments.…”