State formation: The role of grain, intensive agriculture, taxation and writing
13 days ago
- #phylogenetic analysis
- #state formation
- #agricultural intensification
- The study tests hypotheses on the emergence of large-scale human societies, focusing on the roles of intensive agriculture, cereal grain taxation, and writing.
- Bayesian phylogenetic analyses suggest that intensive agriculture was as likely a result of state formation as its cause.
- Grain cultivation likely preceded state formation and predicted the emergence of taxation.
- Writing was more likely to emerge in societies that raised taxes, supporting the idea it was used for tax recording.
- The findings indicate that grain's taxable nature, rather than agricultural surplus, was key to state formation.
- The study uses a global language phylogeny to account for shared cultural histories, enhancing the reliability of cross-cultural analyses.
- Results show strong correlated evolution between grain agriculture and state formation, with states encouraging grain cultivation.
- Taxation and writing were strongly correlated, with writing being adopted in tax-raising societies and retained by states.
- The study highlights regional variations, such as in Sub-Saharan Africa, where environmental factors may have influenced state formation differently.
- The research underscores the importance of phylogenetic methods in understanding cultural evolution and state formation.