A study examines the causal relationship between intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy in cultural evolution. Human societies have increased in complexity since the Holocene epoch began more than 10,000 years ago. Two key traits of complex societies are intensive resource use and sociopolitical hierarchy. The causal relationship between the two traits is a subject of debate, with "materialist" theories proposing that resource intensification drives the development of hierarchy, and "cultural determinist" theories proposing the reverse relationship. Oliver Sheehan and colleagues performed a phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of social stratification, political complexity, and a form of agriculture termed landesque capital-intensive agriculture, which involves permanent changes to the landscape, in 155 Austronesian societies. Across the societies, intensive agriculture was 4-6 times as likely to emerge in the presence high political complexity or medium-high-to-high social stratification, compared with the absence of these traits, thereby challenging the materialist view. However, high social stratification was more likely to emerge in the presence rather than the absence of intensive agriculture, contradicting a cultural determinist view. According to the authors, the results support a reciprocal relationship between intensive agriculture and social stratification, with each facilitating development of the other to a comparable extent, and emphasize the importance of social and political factors in driving the evolution of complex societies.
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Article #17-14558: "Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy," by Oliver Sheehan, Joseph Watts, Russell D. Gray, and Quentin D. Atkinson.
MEDIA CONTACT: Oliver Sheehan, University of Auckland, NEW ZEALAND; tel: +64-210441663; e-mail: <oshe008@aucklanduni.ac.nz>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences