scaling (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rudolf Cesaretti.

From an archaeological perspective, the settlements of Late Medieval Europe lie far to one end of the social complexity spectrum. But from a modern perspective, they are decidedly ancient. Without the institutions and technologies of modern capitalism or the industrial revolution, Late Medieval settlements are commonly characterized as unproductive consumers within dynamic agrarian economies. Both economists and historians have assumed that the benefits of urban agglomeration economies – their...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jose Lobo.

The basic mathematical statement of settlement scaling involves a very simple equation (a "power law function") and variables long used in anthropology and archaeology to study the effects of demography on social processes. One could interpret the settlement scaling framework as another instance of the allometric relationship found very widely in the biological realm. But what may be more important is the fact that the framework actually incorporates a lot of accumulated insights from...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael E. Smith.

Although initially developed to understand contemporary urban systems, the method and theory of settlement scaling are particularly appropriate for archaeological data. The scaling framework can be seen as an outgrowth of existing archaeological research on demography and settlement patterns. Although developed independently, the "social reactor" model that explains observed patterning is in fact well-grounded in anthropological and archaeological theory. The key process that drives change is...