Filtering by Subject: Other Anthropology
Published: 2023-03-27
Subjects: Biological and Physical Anthropology, Other Anthropology, Other Psychology
The role of warfare in human evolution is among the most contentious topics in the evolutionary sciences. The debate is especially heated because many assume that whether our early human ancestors were peaceful or warlike has important implications for modern human nature. Arguments about origins of war often use the behavior of other animal species and recent hunter-gatherers to make inferences [...]
Published: 2022-06-05
Subjects: Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, Asian Studies, Comparative Politics, Economic History, Economics, Geography, Growth and Development, Human Geography, International and Area Studies, International Relations, Models and Methods, Nature and Society Relations, Other Anthropology, Other Economics, Other Political Science, Political Economy, Political Science, Regional Economics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology
We propose and test empirically a theory describing the endogenous formation and persistence of mega-states, using China as an example. We suggest that the relative timing of the emergence of agricultural societies, and their distance from each other, set off a race between their autochthonous state-building projects, which determines their extent and persistence. Using a novel dataset describing [...]
Published: 2021-03-23
Subjects: Anthropology, Other Anthropology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Explaining the rise of large, sedentary populations, with attendant expansions of socio-political hierarchy and labor specialization (collectively referred to as “societal complexity”), is a central problem for social scientists and historians. Adoption of agriculture has often been invoked to explain the rise of complex societies, but archaeological and ethnographic records contradict simple [...]
Published: 2020-09-17
Subjects: Anthropology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Other Anthropology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Biodiversity plays an important role in cultural worldviews, influencing myths, stories, and spiritual beliefs of indigenous peoples. This short review explores an ecological phenomenon that may have influenced and contributed to the development of the Mapuche good spirit insect (Püllomen), which represents the spirit of someone who passed away and comes back to the world of the living providing [...]