scholarly journals Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (14) ◽  
pp. 3628-3633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Sheehan ◽  
Joseph Watts ◽  
Russell D. Gray ◽  
Quentin D. Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Phylogenetic Study ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Resource Intensification ◽  
Political Complexity ◽  
Intermediate Views ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Capital Intensive

One of the defining trends of the Holocene has been the emergence of complex societies. Two essential features of complex societies are intensive resource use and sociopolitical hierarchy. Although it is widely agreed that these two phenomena are associated cross-culturally and have both contributed to the rise of complex societies, the causality underlying their relationship has been the subject of longstanding debate. Materialist theories of cultural evolution tend to view resource intensification as driving the development of hierarchy, but the reverse order of causation has also been advocated, along with a range of intermediate views. Phylogenetic methods have the potential to test between these different causal models. Here we report the results of a phylogenetic study that modeled the coevolution of one type of resource intensification—the development of landesque capital intensive agriculture—with political complexity and social stratification in a sample of 155 Austronesian-speaking societies. We found support for the coevolution of landesque capital with both political complexity and social stratification, but the contingent and nondeterministic nature of both of these relationships was clear. There was no indication that intensification was the “prime mover” in either relationship. Instead, the relationship between intensification and social stratification was broadly reciprocal, whereas political complexity was more of a driver than a result of intensification. These results challenge the materialist view and emphasize the importance of both material and social factors in the evolution of complex societies, as well as the complex and multifactorial nature of cultural evolution.

Group Selection in the Evolution of Religion: Genetic Evolution or Cultural Evolution?

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Davis
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Group Selection ◽  
Genetic Group ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Religious Psychology ◽  
Religious Evolution ◽  
The Relationship

In the scientific literature on religious evolution, two competing theories appeal to group selection to explain the relationship between religious belief and altruism, or costly, prosocial behavior. Both theories agree that group selection plays an important role in cultural evolution, affecting psychological traits that individuals acquire through social learning. They disagree, however, about whether group selection has also played a role in genetic evolution, affecting traits that are inherited genetically. Recently, Jonathan Haidt has defended the most fully developed account based on genetic group selection, and I argue here that problems with this account reveal good reasons to doubt that genetic group selection has played any important role in human evolution at all. Thus, considering the role of group selection in religious evolution is important not just because of what it reveals about religious psychology and religious evolution, but also because of what it reveals about the role of group selection in human evolution more generally.

scholarly journals Metapragmatic stereotypes about geographical diversity in Greece

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-154
Author(s):  
Dimitris Papazachariou ◽  
Anna Fterniati ◽  
Argiris Archakis ◽  
Vasia Tsami
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Geographical Variation ◽  
School Location ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Children's Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Over the past decades, contemporary sociolinguistics has challenged the existence of fixed and rigid linguistic boundaries, thus focusing on how the speakers themselves define language varieties and how specific linguistic choices end up being perceived as language varieties. In this light, the present paper explores the influence of metapragmatic stereotypes on elementary school pupils’ attitudes towards geographical varieties. Specifically, we investigate children’s beliefs as to the acceptability of geographical varieties and their perception of the overt and covert prestige of geographical varieties and dialectal speakers. Furthermore, we explore the relationship between the children’s specific beliefs and factors such as gender, the social stratification of the school location and the pupils’ performance in language subjects. The data of the study was collected via questionnaires with closed questions. The research findings indicate that the children of our sample associate geographical varieties with rural settings and informal communicative contexts. Moreover, children recognize a lack of overt prestige in geographical variation; at the same time, they evaluate positively the social attractiveness and the personal reliability of the geographical varieties and their speakers. Our research showed that pupils’ beliefs are in line with the dominant metapragmatic stereotypes which promote language homogeneity.

Pitirim A Sorokin: The interconnection between his life and scientific work

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 878-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inna Ponomareva
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Polar Opposite ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Life Career

This article discusses the relationship between two periods of Pitirim A Sorokin’s life, career and scientific work: the Russian period (till 1922) and the American (1923–68). The main sociological problems of both periods are considered in the article, including: social behaviour, the positivistic system of sociology and famine (as the key problems of his Russian period) and revolution, social stratification, social mobility, social and cultural dynamics and altruistic love (as the key problems of his American period). The important point in the discussion is that the Russian period is a prototype of the American one rather than its polar opposite; and therefore that the concepts that characterize Sorokin’s American period are the development of his ideas that had emerged while he was still in Russia.

scholarly journals An evolutionary process without variation and selection

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (180) ◽  
pp. 20210334
Author(s):  
Liane Gabora ◽  
Mike Steel
Keyword(s):  
Germ Cells ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Adaptive Change ◽  
Assembly Code ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Variation And Selection

Natural selection successfully explains how organisms accumulate adaptive change despite that traits acquired over a lifetime are eliminated at the end of each generation. However, in some domains that exhibit cumulative, adaptive change—e.g. cultural evolution, and earliest life—acquired traits are retained; these domains do not face the problem that Darwin’s theory was designed to solve. Lack of transmission of acquired traits occurs when germ cells are protected from environmental change, due to a self-assembly code used in two distinct ways: (i) actively interpreted during development to generate a soma, and (ii) passively copied without interpretation during reproduction to generate germ cells. Early life and cultural evolution appear not to involve a self-assembly code used in these two ways. We suggest that cumulative, adaptive change in these domains is due to a lower-fidelity evolutionary process, and model it using reflexively autocatalytic and foodset-generated networks. We refer to this more primitive evolutionary process as self–other reorganization (SOR) because it involves internal self-organizing and self-maintaining processes within entities, as well as interaction between entities. SOR encompasses learning but in general operates across groups. We discuss the relationship between SOR and Lamarckism, and illustrate a special case of SOR without variation.

Ecological and psychological factors in the cultural evolution of music

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thom Scott-Phillips ◽  
Atsuko Tominaga ◽  
Helena Miton
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Cognition And Culture ◽  
Evolution Of Music ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The two target articles agree that processes of cultural evolution generate richness and diversity in music, but neither address this question in a focused way. We sketch one way to proceed – and hence suggest how the target articles differ not only in empirical claims, but also in their tacit, prior assumptions about the relationship between cognition and culture.

Social Stratification in the Sahel

2021 ◽  
pp. 630-648
Author(s):  
Cédric Jourde
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Islamic Leadership ◽  
Postcolonial States ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Status Differences

This chapter explores the politics of social status hierarchies in the Sahel (freeborn, “castes,” slaves) and the rich literature devoted to this theme. It looks specifically at two themes. First, the paradoxical relationship between Islam and social status stratification. The doctrinal equality of the believers before God has often been negated in practice, as “freeborn” lineages have taken over positions of Islamic leadership. But recently some religious movements (Islamism, Sufism, perhaps some jihadism as well) and social movements have challenged the hierarchy of status differences, some in words only, others in deeds as well. The second theme covers the relationship between the construction of colonial and postcolonial states and status hierarchies. Officially, in postcolonial states all citizens are equal under the law. But informally, little is done to counter practices that perpetuate status discrimination such as slavery. Also, electoral politics can both crystalize social status differences and trigger mobilization against status inequalities.

scholarly journals Why Do Advantaged People Feel Unhappy? Effects of Materialistic Values on Subjective Well-Being

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311985391
Author(s):  
Naoki Sudo
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Finite Mixtures ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Easterlin Paradox ◽  
Materialistic Values ◽  
The Relationship

This article aims to explore the relationship between income and happiness. As shown by the Easterlin paradox, the relationship between income and happiness is not simple but indeed is rather complicated. The author used finite mixtures of regression models to analyze the data from the National Survey of Social Stratification and Social Mobility conducted in Japan and implemented computer simulations based on the results of the finite mixtures of regression models to examine how changes in social values influence the relationship between income and happiness. Analytical results revealed that people can be categorized into two latent classes: one dominated by materialistic values and the other eschewing materialistic values. Moreover, they clarified that materialistic values have ambivalent influences on individual happiness and average happiness in society. It is concluded that the diffusion of materialistic values might cause paradoxical relationships between income and happiness.

Corporate governance, innovation input and corporate performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meiqun Yin ◽  
Lei Sheng
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Performance ◽  
Incentive Mechanism ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Current Period ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Capital Intensive

Purpose This paper aims to find the endogenous relationship between innovation input and corporate performance and deepen the study of innovation performance theory in industry and enterprise at the micro level. Design/methodology/approach This paper selects the firms listed on A shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2015 as samples. The authors cluster these samples according to the factors of production and classify the samples into three types: technology-intensive, capital-intensive and labor-intensive. After obtaining the samples and classifying them, the authors conduct a research on the endogenous relationship between the innovation input and the corporate performance through the simultaneous equations model and 3SLS estimation method. Meanwhile, they also make a study on the influence of executive incentive mechanism on the relationship between the innovation input and the corporate performance. Findings In technology-intensive industry, the increase of pre-innovation input will enhance the corporate performance in the current period, however, which will slow down the pace of innovation and lead to lower corporate performance in the future, and then increase innovation input again. In contrast, in capital-intensive industries, innovation input just improves corporate performance in the current period and the promotion of corporate performance will promote the intensity of innovation input in the future. With labor-intensive industries, innovation input also depends on early good returns, but innovation input has no significant impact on the corporate performance both at present and in the future. While in the executive incentive mechanism, salary incentive has a significant positive regulatory effect on the relationship between innovation input and corporate performance. Originality/value This paper presents a new research perspective on the relationship between innovation input and firm corporate performance, which is of great value to the listed company in balancing the R&D input with the company’s target performance and the design of executive incentive mechanism.

INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE AND EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF THE BASIN OF MEXICO: THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Basin Of Mexico ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Preclassic Period

AbstractIntensive agriculture was a key feature in the development of early complex societies in the Basin of Mexico. In this paper, I review the theoretical underpinnings of archaeological understandings of agriculture change, its relationship to culture change, and how these theoretical perspectives have shifted between top-down and bottom up perspectives. Next I examine current knowledge of intensive agriculture within the dynamic context of the Formative or Preclassic period. The paper concludes with a discussion of how our models and theories of the complex interplay between intensive agriculture and political economy to explain the change from village-based societies to states and cities outstrip available data in the basin.

Revisiting Agrarian Reform in Brazil, 1985–2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilder Robles
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agrarian Reform ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Limited Impact ◽  
Land Redistribution ◽  
Capital Intensive

This article examines Brazil’s experience in agrarian reform from 1985 to 2016. After more than three decades of agrarian reform, Brazil remains a country with highly skewed landownership. Peasant-led agrarian reform efforts have had limited impact in changing this situation. Agrarian reform remains an unfulfilled political promise, and this situation continues to create tensions and conflicts in the countryside. The main reason for the persistence of skewed land concentration is the State’s support of agribusiness. Successive post-1985 democratic governments have encouraged the opening of new agricultural frontiers by providing generous economic incentives. Land redistribution has been offset by further land possession; that is, the expansion of small-scale agricultural farming has been counterbalanced by the expansion of large-scale, capital intensive agriculture. Agribusiness has not only undermined agrarian reform efforts but has also generated a growing dependency on a socially and environmentally destructive monoculture agricultural economy. Moreover, Brazil’s current political and economic crisis has further undermined the struggle for agrarian reform.

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