Complex Systems (Other Keyword)
1-4 (4 Records)
For at least the last 5,000 years, competition for social and economic control led to the acquisition of social power and wealth by some individuals or groups and the emergence of complex social systems. This paper will present the preliminary results of a larger study intended to identify the changing network structures that underlie society at the household, village and regional scales and led to the emergence of social complexity as a system level phenomenon during the Prehistoric Bronze Age...
Can government be self-organized? A mathematical model of the collective social organization of ancient Teotihuacan, Central Mexico (2015)
Teotihuacan was the first extensive urban civilization of Mesoamerica and one of the largest of the ancient world. Following a tradition in archaeology to equate social complexity with centralized hierarchy, it is still widely believed that its origin and growth was controlled by a dynastic lineage of powerful individuals. However, much data is indicative of a government of co-rulers, and artistic traditions expressed an egalitarian ideology while deemphasizing individuals. Yet this...
A complex systems and network science approach to the emergence of social complexity on Cyprus during the Prehistoric Bronze Age (2016)
People who seek wealth and power structure and restructure the social networks that underlie society. From these networks that bind people together and facilitate the movement of goods, services and information, emerges the phenomenon we call social complexity. To better understand this phenomenon in past societies, this project uses data from the Prehistoric Bronze Age on Cyprus (2400-1700 Cal BCE) and novel methods derived from complex systems and small world network science, and modern...
IHOPE Maya: Linking lessons of the past to our present and future (2015)
Since 2007 the IHOPE Maya team has focused on synthesizing dynamic human-environmental interactions of the ancient Maya of southeastern Mexico and upper Central America (400BC-900AD). A series of great tropical societies, the Maya occupied a diverse range of tropical environments, adapting local strategies to meet varied subsistence, economic, political, and ecosystem service needs at large and small urban centers. Cycles of expanding populations, increasing despotism, and reliance on...