Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution
Although Gregory Johnson’s models have influenced social theory in archaeology, few have applied or built upon these models to predict aspects of social organization, group size, or fissioning. Exceptions have been limited to small case studies. Recently, the relationship between a society’s scale a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Tsinghua University Press
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Social Computing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.23919/JSC.2021.0017 |
| _version_ | 1811344661777743872 |
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| author | Laura J. Ellyson |
| author_facet | Laura J. Ellyson |
| author_sort | Laura J. Ellyson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although Gregory Johnson’s models have influenced social theory in archaeology, few have applied or built upon these models to predict aspects of social organization, group size, or fissioning. Exceptions have been limited to small case studies. Recently, the relationship between a society’s scale and its information-processing capacities has been explored using the Seshat Databank. Here, I apply multiple-linear regression analysis to the Seshat data using Turchin and colleagues’ 9 “complexity characteristics” (CCs) to further examine the relationship between the hierarchy CC and the remaining 8 CCs which include both aspects of a polity’s scale and aspects of what Kohler et al. call “collective computation”. The results support Johnson’s ideas that stratification will generally increase with increases in a polity’s scale (population, territory); however, stratification is also higher when polities increase their developments in information-processing variables such as texts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T19:51:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ed71e74bd24b4d4c841fe51fef337419 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2688-5255 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T19:51:29Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | Tsinghua University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Social Computing |
| spelling | doaj.art-ed71e74bd24b4d4c841fe51fef3374192022-12-22T02:32:32ZengTsinghua University PressJournal of Social Computing2688-52552022-03-0131385610.23919/JSC.2021.0017Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social EvolutionLaura J. Ellyson0Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163, USA, and also with Terrestrial Archaeology Division, SEARCH Inc., Pensacola, FL 32503, USAAlthough Gregory Johnson’s models have influenced social theory in archaeology, few have applied or built upon these models to predict aspects of social organization, group size, or fissioning. Exceptions have been limited to small case studies. Recently, the relationship between a society’s scale and its information-processing capacities has been explored using the Seshat Databank. Here, I apply multiple-linear regression analysis to the Seshat data using Turchin and colleagues’ 9 “complexity characteristics” (CCs) to further examine the relationship between the hierarchy CC and the remaining 8 CCs which include both aspects of a polity’s scale and aspects of what Kohler et al. call “collective computation”. The results support Johnson’s ideas that stratification will generally increase with increases in a polity’s scale (population, territory); however, stratification is also higher when polities increase their developments in information-processing variables such as texts.https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.23919/JSC.2021.0017hierarchyscalar stressseshat databankmultiple imputationmultiple regression |
| spellingShingle | Laura J. Ellyson Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution Journal of Social Computing hierarchy scalar stress seshat databank multiple imputation multiple regression |
| title | Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution |
| title_full | Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution |
| title_fullStr | Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution |
| title_full_unstemmed | Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution |
| title_short | Applying Gregory Johnson’s Concepts of Scalar Stress to Scale and Information Thresholds in Holocene Social Evolution |
| title_sort | applying gregory johnson s concepts of scalar stress to scale and information thresholds in holocene social evolution |
| topic | hierarchy scalar stress seshat databank multiple imputation multiple regression |
| url | https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.23919/JSC.2021.0017 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laurajellyson applyinggregoryjohnsonsconceptsofscalarstresstoscaleandinformationthresholdsinholocenesocialevolution |