The causes and scope of political egalitarianism during the Last Glacial: a multi-disciplinary perspective

Shultziner, Doron; Stevens, Thomas; Stevens, Martin; Stewart, Brian; Hannagan, Rebecca J.; Saltini-Semerari, Giulia

doi:10.1007/s10539-010-9196-4

Cited by 27 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 131 publications

(123 reference statements)

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“…Throughout most of Homo sapiens 300'000 year record, humans have lived in small-scale, mostly egalitarian huntergatherer societies, comprising around 30-50 or, at most, a few hundred individuals [1][2][3]. Following the strong warming of Earth by 5 to 10 • C from about 15'000 years ago leading to the end of the last ice age, settled communities emerged around 10'000 years ago, together with agriculture and animal domestication.…”

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confidence: 99%

A theory of discrete hierarchies as optimal cost-adjusted productivity organisations

Lera

Sornette

2019

PLoS ONE

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Hierarchical structures are ubiquitous in human and animal societies, but a fundamental understanding of their raison d’être has been lacking. Here, we present a general theory in which hierarchies are obtained as the optimal design that strikes a balance between the benefits of group productivity and the costs of communication for coordination. By maximising a generic representation of the output of a hierarchical organization with respect to its design, the optimal configuration of group sizes at different levels can be determined. With very few ingredients, a wide variety of hierarchically ordered complex organisational structures can be derived. Furthermore, our results rationalise the ubiquitous occurrence of triadic hierarchies, i.e., of the universal preferred scaling ratio between 3 and 4 found in many human and animal hierarchies, which should occur according to our theory when production is rather evenly contributed by all levels. We also provide a systematic approach for optimising team organisation, helping to address the question of the optimal ‘span of control’. The significantly larger number ∼ 3 − 20 of subordinates a supervisor typically manages is rationalised to occur in organisations where the production is essentially done at the bottom level and in which the higher levels are only present to optimise coordination and control.

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confidence: 99%

A theory of discrete hierarchies as optimal cost-adjusted productivity organisations

Lera

Sornette

2019

PLoS ONE

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“…2. I here assume that the ethnography of mobile foragers is a reasonable guide to basic features of Palaeolithic forager groups (see Shultziner et al 2010;Boehm 2012). cieties emerge out of cultures in which it was in the interests of (most) agents to control aggrandizers, societies in which agents had the capacity to control aggrandizers and were primed to do so. What explains the failure of collective action in defense of those common interests?…”

Section: Optimizing Engines: Rationalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing Engines: Rational Choice in the Neolithic?

Sterelny¹

2015

Philos. of Sci.

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This article has both substantive and methodological goals. Methodologically, it shows that rational choice theory (in its behavioral ecology form) is an especially important tool for guiding research in contexts in which agents appear to be acting against their best interests. The Neolithic transition is one such case, and the article develops a substantive conception of that transition, illustrating the heuristic power of behavioral ecology.

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“…2 It should be stressed that the alternative explanation of the twin study results I propose in this article does not posit that there are no biological dispositions which are relevant to social life and politics. Human universals and dispositions have been identified as well as their relevance to social science (e.g., Brown 1991Brown , 1999Brown , 2004Pinker 2003;Shultziner 2010;Shultziner et al 2010). My main point is that the method of comparing twins does not and cannot reveal a genetic basis of political preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genes and Politics: A New Explanation and Evaluation of Twin Study Results and Association Studies in Political Science

Shultziner¹

2013

Polit. anal.

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This article offers a new explanation for the results of twin studies in political science that supposedly disclose a genetic basis for political traits. I argue that identical twins tend to be more alike than nonidentical twins because the former are more similarly affected by the same environmental conditions, but the content of those greater trait similarities is nevertheless completely malleable and determined by particular environments. The twin studies method thus can neither prove nor refute the argument for a genetic basis of political traits such as liberal and conservative preferences or voting turnout. The meaning of heritability estimates results in twin studies are discussed, as well as the definition and function of the environment in the political science twin studies. The premature attempts to associate political traits with specific genes despite countertrends in genetics are also examined. I conclude by proposing that the alternative explanation of this article may explain certain puzzles in behavioral genetics, particularly why social and political traits have higher heritability estimates than common physical and medical traits. I map the main point of disagreements with the methodology and the interpretation of its results, and delineate the main operative implications for future research.

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The causes and scope of political egalitarianism during the Last Glacial: a multi-disciplinary perspective

Cited by 27 publications

References 131 publications

A theory of discrete hierarchies as optimal cost-adjusted productivity organisations

A theory of discrete hierarchies as optimal cost-adjusted productivity organisations

Optimizing Engines: Rational Choice in the Neolithic?

Genes and Politics: A New Explanation and Evaluation of Twin Study Results and Association Studies in Political Science

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