Circumscription Theory of the Origins of the State: A Cross-Cultural Re-Analysis

Zinkina, Julia; Korotayev, Andrey; Andreev, Alexander E.

doi:10.21237/c7clio7232817

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…We return to Carneiro's (2012a: 12) statement: '…we are forced to conclude that tight geographic constrictions, while greatly aiding state formation is not absolutely essential to it.' Surely, with Zinkina, Korotayev, and Andreev's (2016) critique of the warfare aspect of circumscription theory and our critique of the ecological aspects, we can dispense with circumscription theory. Hopefully, if anyone desires to continue it in the future, data will be presented in a scholarly fashion.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early State Formation: A Complete Rejection of the Circumscription Theory

Stocker¹,

Xi’ao²

2019

seh

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We evaluated Carneiro's 'environmental circumscription' theory and completely rejected it. It was an insidious ethnocentric prima facie construct. Attempting to develop a viable alternative to early state formation, we focused on food procurement, production and storage. Obviously, large population aggregates (characterizing a state by archaeologists) was only possible because they were in areas of unique abundant wild/renewable food resources, supplemented with agriculture in varying degrees of development. All earliest states followed a pattern of being located near a river mouth entering a sea or ocean. Thus, we propose that such areas produced large amounts of aquatic fauna (mainly fish) and sometimes flora, and these renewable resources helped support sizeable human populations. We label our theory: Unique Resource Constellation Theory (URCT).

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only with this assumption does Carneiro's theory make sense. All the available data seem to show that the conquest-warfare culture is a rather late phenomenon which does not appear to be found in independent communities (Zinkina, Korotayev, and Andreev 2016)).…”

Section: Conquest Warfarementioning

confidence: 95%

Early State Formation: A Complete Rejection of the Circumscription Theory

Stocker¹,

Xi’ao²

2019

seh

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“…But, as a rule, society could hardly even come close to this mathematical limit, since the conflict factor came into play. We believe that after occupying half of the possible capacity (or even far from reaching this half) it became congested: the settlements would become situated too close to each other and friction arose (Carneiro 1987;Korotayev, Malkov and Khaltourina 2006b;Grinin 2007b;Grinin and Korotayev 2012b;Zinkina, Korotayev and Andreev 2016). 12 In addition, waste products polluted large areas.…”

Section: The Craft-agrarian Production Principlementioning

confidence: 99%

Demographic Transformations in the Historical Process in the Light of Technological Development: Theoretical Approach

Grinin,

Grinin

2023

SEH

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The analysis of the demographic component and of the demographic dimension of historical process has unfortunately not been sufficiently studied in the social sciences. The demographic development of humankind is even more rarely studied in its close connection with technological development. However, this is an extremely important aspect that can not only explain essential dimensions of the development, but also provide a basis for explaining current processes and forecasting our futures. Moreover, in many ways, it is an integral aspect of analysis, because it focuses on people, the population, that is the main subject of society and humanity. Accordingly, the changes in demographic parameters (both quantitative and qualitative) have an impact on the entire social system, from technology to ideology as well as on the World System at whole. Population growth is undoubtedly the most important driving force of the development of society. The most important subsystem of society, which constitutes its material basis, combines population and production. The link between demography and production is seemingly obvious, since, on the one hand, production determines population growth opportunities and, on the other hand, population size affects the production and other opportunities of a society. However, this relationship is not so simple and is also non-linear, and in addition, the correlation between the demographic and production components of societies changes significantly over the course of the historical process. It is also not always so easy to explain strong fluctuations and transformations in population dynamics. In the present study, the authors provide an analysis of the demographic development of humankind in its close connection with technological development, including the twenty-first century trends. This work, consisting of two articles, aims to provide a theoretical framework for the correlation between the development of production and technology, on the one hand, and demographic transformations, on the other, during the historical process, and to describe all major demographic transformations during human history. The work describes the historical types of population reproduction (TPR) and the reasons for their change. All this makes it possible to make a forecast about the vectors and main features of the coming demographic transformation in the twenty-first century. This (first) article describes theoretical approaches and models of the connection between production revolutions (Agrarian, Industrial and Cybernetic) and the largest demographic transformations, and also reflects important points influencing on population growth and its limitatio-ns. It is shown that the production revolution and the development of the production principle cycle in general change the type of population reproduction, and together they provide the most powerful impulse for the qualitative reorganization of the entire social structure and social relations and further world-system configurations. The authors conclude that every production revolution is followed by a fundamental change in demography. And vice versa, population growth causes such changes in society and inter-societal relations, communications and diffusion of innovations that it greatly accelerates technological development. However, there are many nuances and external inconsistencies in this correlation that require explanation. The latter are given in the second article, which also makes predictions about future demographic transformations.

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“…Describing the geography of landscapes where the first complex societies formed is useful to establish a potential causal link between environment and social change, but has limited explanatory power (Aldenderfer, 1991;Lake, 2015;Smaldino, 2017). Arguments against the circumscription theory have also been made by criticising the reliance on warfare as a main mechanism of change (Stocker and Xiao, 2019); the relative absence of conquest warfare between independent communities and chiefdoms in cross-cultural data (Zinkina, et al, 2016); the lack of evidence for hard geographic barriers or population pressure in areas of state formation including the Valley of Oaxaca, Egypt, and Uganda (Gibson, 2012); and criticisms that the conditions of circumscription require more precise definition (Schacht, 1988;Graber, 1988;Scott, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A formal test using agent-based models of the circumscription theory for the evolution of social complexity

Williams,

Mesoudi

2023

Preprint

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The emergence of social complexity in human societies is a long-debated topic in archaeology, with competing hypotheses proposed and argued for using archaeological evidence. However, formal testing of these hypotheses is generally lacking. Here, we present and analyse an agent-based model to test the effect of environmental, resource, and social barriers to population movement – collectively known as ‘circumscription’ – on the rate of hierarchy formation. The results show that social circumscription is the largest driver of social complexity by increasing proximity between settlements. Environmental and resource circumscription can negatively impact the emergence of social complexity when the conditions separate the population spatially but can amplify social complexity when the conditions increase proximity between settlements. In providing a detailed test of the assumptions and predictions of circumscription theory, our abstract model provides insight into the conditions that are most likely to result in the emergence of social complexity in the real world.

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Circumscription Theory of the Origins of the State: A Cross-Cultural Re-Analysis

Cited by 7 publications

References 14 publications

Early State Formation: A Complete Rejection of the Circumscription Theory

Early State Formation: A Complete Rejection of the Circumscription Theory

Demographic Transformations in the Historical Process in the Light of Technological Development: Theoretical Approach

A formal test using agent-based models of the circumscription theory for the evolution of social complexity

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