Robert L. Carneiro

A Theory of the Origin of the State: Traditional theories of state origins are considered and rejected in favor of a new ecological hypothesis

In summary, then, the circumscription theory in its elaborated form goes far toward accounting for the origin of the state. It explains why states arose where they did, and why they failed to arise elsewhere. It shows the state to be a predictable response to certain specific cultural, demographic, and ecological conditions. Thus, it helps to elucidate what was undoubtedly the most important single step ever taken in the political evolution of mankind.

Evolutionism in cultural anthropology : a critical history

Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropologytraces the interaction of evolutionary thought and anthropological theory from Herbert Spencer to the twenty-first century. It is a focused examination of how the idea of evolution has continued to provide anthropology with a master principle around which a vast body of data can be organized and synthesized. Erudite and readable, and quoting extensively from early theorists (such as Edward Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, John McLennan, Henry Maine, and James Frazer) so that the reader might judge them on the basis of their own words, Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology is useful reading for courses in anthropological theory and the history of anthropology.

The Evolution of Complexity in Human Societies and Its Mathematical Expression

Social evolution reflects the need of societies to increase their organization if they are to remain integrated as they grow in size. Autonomous villages that become larger without at the same time elaborating their structure, generally fission. The rate at which a growing village must increase its structure to keep from splitting seems to be proportional to the 2/3 power of its population. As chiefdoms and states emerge, though, and villages lose their autonomy, a higher rate of structural elaboration may be required to keep these larger societies unified. IT IS IN THE NATURE OF THINGS that simplicity precedes complexity. Or, if that sounds too metaphysical, we can at least say that in the history of the universe, complexity has developed out of simplicity.’ Immediately following the &dquo;Big Bang&dquo;, the universe was simplicity itself, containing nothing but a few types of vanishingly small, sub-atomic particles. Only with the passage of time-with evolution-did successively larger and more complex aggregates of matter arise (Weinberg 1979). Herbert Spencer (1863:216) defined evolution as &dquo;a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity, to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; through continuous differentiations and integrations.&dquo; Spencer also recognized another process, &dquo;dissolution&dquo; (now generally called &dquo;devolution&dquo;), which he saw as the opposite of evolution. In dissolution there is a breakdown of structure, yielding a relatively simpler form of order or organization. Thus dissolution undoes what evolution has done. Spencer noted, however, that in the history of the universe, evolution has predominated over dissolution. Despite breakdowns of structure that have occurred here and there, now and then, the cosmos today is far more complex than it was when it began. Three great stages may be distinguished in the evolution of the universe. During the first, matter was aggregated and reaggregated into more and more complex inorganic structures. Protons, neutrons, and electrons united to form

Ascertaining, Testing, and Interpreting Sequences of Cultural Development

N AN EARLIER PAPER (Carneiro 1962) I attempted to show how Guttman scale analysis could be applied to the study of cultural evolution, and in later ones (Carneiro and Tobias 1963; Carneiro 1969) presented some results obtained thereby. Since the last of these papers was written, ew findings have emerged from the study, and it is these findings that I would like to present here. Since Guttman scaling is becoming increasingly familiar to anthropologists, and since its application to cultural evolution has already been described inthe articles cited above, I will not undertake toexplain it again here. Instead, I will begin by reviewing a few of the results reported arlier, since they serve as a basis for understanding the newer findings. Figure 1 shows a scalogram comprising 50 traits and 100 societies.2 The inventory of traits for each society was made at a single time level. Although the time levels vary somewhat from society to society, most of them (except in the case of early civilizations like Egypt and Rome) are roughly contemporaneous. The order in which the traits are arranged on the scalogram, from bottom to top, which is the order of their decreasing frequency, we take to be the order in which these societies most probably have evolved them. So that from a systematic comparison of a wide range of essentially s nchronic data we are inferring a diachronic process. When scale analysis is used in this way, we have another instance of the application of the comparative method in anthropology. Everyone knows, of course, that the use of the comparative method in this field has long been questioned and even rejected by anthropologists. Alexander Goldenweiser, for example, asked pointedly:

Forest clearance among the yanomamo, observations and implications

of the projects and the characteristics of the surrounding neighborhoods, and the relationships between the two. Inasmuch as the study of community formation among the elderly-like other ethnography -may suffer from exclusive and undue emphasis on patterns and processes within the residential boundaries, the present approach is a useful corrective, as it calls attention to the possible effects of outside or environmental forces on both type and level of community. Our research compares the social organizations of three public housing projects for the elderly in Milwaukee, focusing on the ethnic makeup of their populations and its relationship to that of the surrounding neighborhoods. In effect, Milwaukee has thirteen housing projects for the elderly which, although they differ in important respects, are fundamentally similar in that they constitute a distinct and unique adaptive niche. This niche has six primary characteristics, three having to do with the population that occupies the niche and three with the setting. First, the resident population consists of high-density and exclusive concentrations of the elderly. Secondly, residents are capable of independently performing the usual activities of daily living, i.e., in bio-physical and b havioral terms, they can function with minimal dependence on others. Some individuals manage to continue as residents following a breakdown in health or mobility; whether or how long they manage to do so usually depends on support of spouse (if present), neighbors, or relatives. Thirdly, residents are drawn from only one socioeconomic segment of the communitys older persons-the poor. As to characteristics of the setting, first it is a special type of physical setting-an apartment complex or project, mainly of the high-rise type. Secondly, the projects are located in central-city urban neighborhoods, i.e., in areas with high levels of poverty, with crime rates generally above the mean for the city, and with variable access to food markets

Structure, Function, and Equilibrium in the Evolutionism of Herbert Spencer

It is widely believed that Herbert Spencer dealt only with the general nature and direction of social evolution, and did not concern himself with its mechanisms and detailed workings. But this is not true. Spencer devoted considerable attention to the process by which societies adapt themselves to their environments, and the ways in which this adaptation is related to evolution. Indeed, in certain of his writings Spencer portrayed social evolution as the accumulation of structural and functional changes that occur as societies successively reequilibrate themselves to altered conditions of existence.

The Political Unification of the World: Whether, When, and How—Some Speculations

That the world will some day be ruled by a single government has been foreseen by visionary thinkers for well more than a century, and this article quotes a number of these predictions. However, there has been less agreement as to how a world state would be achieved. Some have held that it would occur through peaceful and voluntary means. Others have argued that it could only result—as have all other political coalescences in the past—through military means. This article sides with the latter view and cites the war in Iraq as perhaps a small step in that direction. Finally, several projections are discussed that attempt to predict when the political unification of the world will occur.

The Role of Natural Selection in the Evolution of Culture

The great contribution of Charles Darwin to the study of organic evolution was, of course, the principle of natural selection. A few earlier thinkers, like Lamarck, had already argued that animal species had not been specially created but had evolved, but they proposed no satisfactory mechanism to explain this evolution. The theory of natural selection did just that. Natural selection is a master principle. It applies not only to the evolution of life, but also to the evolution of culture. As such, it was freely drawn on by the classical evolutionists of the 19th century. Before proceeding further, then, let us trace a bit of the history of the application of natural selection to human societies.

The Evolution of the Tipití

Manioc is the staple crop of almost all Indian tribes in the Amazon Basin. However, many varieties of this plant are poisonous, containing lethal amounts of prussic acid in their tubers. To render the tubers fit for human consumption, most tribes of the region employ a type of press known as a tipiti.’

Can anthropology be made a science? A retrospective glance

The history of anthropology is a growing field of study within the discipline itself. Our series ‘Key Informants on the History of Anthropology’ contributes to the discussion of how anthropology, as it is understood and practiced today, evolved and took shape. In the following invited contribution Robert L. Carneiro, who for more than four decades has worked as curator of South American Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, looks back on a lifelong involvement with studies of cultural evolution. Inspired by his teacher Leslie White in the 1940s, Professor Carneiro is perhaps best known for his classic publications ‘A Theory of the Origin of the State’ and ‘The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State’. Here, he discusses the background to those papers, and he gives his views on developments in anthropology since the 1940s.