【讲座34】Explore the rise of large-scale complex human societies

【量化历史网上讲座系列】(Quantitative History Webinar Series)由香港大学陈志武教授和马驰骋博士联合发起并举办，旨在介绍前沿量化历史研究成果、促进同仁交流，推广量化方法在历史研究中的应用。本系列讲座由国际量化历史学会、香港大学经济管理学院和亚洲环球研究所全力支持和承办。

讲座信息

Cultural macroevolution: Understanding the rise of large-scale complex societies in human history

主讲人: Peter Turchin, Project Leader and Professor, Complexity Science Hub Vienna and University of Connecticut

时间：2021年4月22日 09:00 - 10:30 （北京时间，星期四）

讲座语言：英文

讲座介绍

Over the past 10,000 years, human societies evolved from “simple”—small egalitarian groups, integrated by face-to-face interactions, —to “complex”—huge anonymous societies with great differentials in wealth and power, extensive division of labor, elaborate governance structures, and sophisticated information systems. One aspect of this “major evolutionary transition” that continues to excite intense debate is the origins and evolution of the state—a politically centralized territorial polity with internally specialized administrative organization.

Theories proposed by early philosophers and contemporary social scientists make different predictions about causal processes driving the rise of state-level social organization. Evolutionary anthropologist Peter Turchin uses the framework of Cultural Evolution and data in Seshat: Global History Databank to empirically test predictions of several such theories. In particular, Peter Turchin analyzes how the evolution of specialized governance structures was affected by such factors as social scale (population, territorial expansion), social stratification, information systems, intensity of warfare, and the productivity of agriculture.

In this Quantitative History Webinar, Peter Turchin of Complexity Science Hub Vienna and University of Connecticut will explore how these empirical results support the idea that a major evolutionary force explaining the rise of large-scale complex human societies, organized as states was Cultural Multi-Level Selection.

“量化历史研究”公众号由陈志武（香港大学冯氏基金讲席教授、原耶鲁大学教授）和龙登高（清华大学教授）及其团队——林展（中国人民大学）、熊金武（中国政法大学）、何石军（武汉大学）、蒋勤（上海交通大学）、彭雪梅（中山大学）等人负责。向学界和业界朋友，定期推送量化历史研究经典、前沿文献。同时作为“量化历史讲习班”信息交流平台。喜欢我们的朋友请搜寻公众号：QuantitativeHistory，或扫描下面二维码关注。

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