Early Holocene phytolith records for three shell midden sites, Yongjiang River, Guangxi Province, China

Phytolith records from three proximal freshwater shell midden sites document plant exploitation and local palaeoecological changes during the early Holocene in present-day Nanning City, Guangxi Province, China. Radiocarbon dating of freshwater gastropod shells indicates the midden sites formed sequentially, with variable chronological overlaps: Baozitou at 12,000-11,130 cal BP, Shichuantou at 11,250-10,500 cal BP and Nabeizui at 11,060-9560 cal BP. Palaeoecological data are inferred to show variable trends of forest reduction or recovery during the formation of each midden, suggesting different intensities of site use and impacts upon the local environment. Significantly, palms (Arecaceae) became more frequent during the middle period of formation at each site, which is interpreted to represent resource intensification and selective exploitation of palms by the communities who created each midden.

Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy

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.