Computer simulation of the effect of urban centers on the development of wealth inequality in pastoral nomadic society

Summary

Agent-based computer simulation is an approach that models the behavior of individual agents, allowing for the observation of emergent phenomena created by the aggregate effects of individual actions. This presentation builds on a recent series of agent-based computer simulations exploring the development of wealth inequality as a function of environmental change in pastoral nomadic societies. When simulating a pure pastoral nomadic economy, it was found that wealth inequality increased under favorable environmental conditions. This presentation reports on the results of new simulations incorporating urban centers into this environment to examine their effect on the distribution of wealth. The relevance of these results for understanding the growth and stability of the Mongol empire will be discussed, with particular reference to historical sources dealing with the relationship between pastoral nomadic populations and urban centers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Medieval Cities in the Eurasian Steppe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15222