The Effects of Economic Complexity and Temperature on the Long-Term Energy Consumption Dynamics of Human Societies

Summary

Increases in energy consumption correlate with social and political development in human societies, as well as increasing human impacts on ecosystems. Thus, understanding the underlying drivers of energy consumption in human societies may provide insights into the processes of social evolution and rapid social change (collapse). In this paper, we develop a model of energy consumption in human societies based on population size, economic complexity and temperature. We demonstrate the usefulness of the model with global data on contemporary societies. Next, we use a large sample of radiocarbon dates to estimate changes in energy consumption by human societies over the last 8,000 years in Utah. Following the predictions of the model, we use assemblages from Utah caves to measure changes in economic complexity and paleoenvironmental datasets to estimate changes in temperature. We use these estimates of economic complexity and temperature to explain variation in the Utah radiocarbon curve over the last 8,000 years. Our results illustrate the importance of understanding the underlying dynamics of energy consumption in human societies to explain social and political development, as well as rapid reorganization in human social systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• PAGES (Past Global Changes) PEOPLE 3000 - PalEOclimate and the PeopLing of the Earth   •
• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21150