The Emergence of Sociopolitical Complexity: Evidence from Contact-Era New Guinea
The Emergence of Sociopolitical Complexity: Evidence from Contact-Era New Guinea
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社会政治复杂性的出现：来自接触时代新几内亚的证据
DOI：
10.1007/978-3-319-48402-0_8
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
P. Roscoe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Roscoe
新几内亚的领导形式跨越了政治范围，从平等主义的采集者群体到跨平等主义的耕种者，再到小酋长领地的渔民采集者。本章通过对其中 92 个社区的比较数据发现，小规模社会中出现的政治复杂性主要是由男性地位竞争驱动的。尽管这种竞赛的形式多种多样，但最重要的是战争和物质展示（物质物品的显着分配）。战争是迄今为止男性地位更常见和更受重视的来源，这是新几内亚人长期面临的军事威胁的结果。然而，当人口密度超过 20-25 人/平方公里时，物质展示——经典大人物的政治标志——作为获得地位的途径变得越来越普遍和重要，这是这些社会中地位与权力之间不寻常关系的一个功能。物质展示是以具体形式展示个人和集体力量的一种手段。为了在物质展示上超越彼此，大人物和他们的团体通过展示自己的力量来争夺地位。这种情况解释了为什么物质展示作为地位竞争渠道的出现依赖于人口密度的上升。在小规模社区中，聚集权力的能力在很大程度上取决于密度。在低密度下，这种能力受到限制，限制了物质分配作为地位竞争模式的重要性。然而，随着密度的增加，这些限制逐渐消失，直到达到每平方公里 50-55 人左右的门槛，权力——体现在物质展示上——成为地位竞争的主要渠道。
Leadership forms in New Guinea spanned a political spectrum from egalitarian forager bands through trans-egalitarian cultivators to petty chiefdom fisher-foragers. Drawing comparative data from 92 of these communities, this chapter finds that emergent political complexity in small-scale societies is primarily driven by male status competition. Although the forms this competition took varied, the most important were warfare and material display (the conspicuous distribution of material goods). Warfare was by far the more common and highly valued source of male status , a function of the chronic military threat to which New Guineans were exposed. At population densities above about 20–25 people/km2, however, material display––the political hallmark of the classic Big-man ––became increasingly prevalent and important as an avenue to status , a function of the unusual relationship between status and power in these societies. Material displays were a means of demonstrating in concrete form individual and collective power . and in competing to outdo one another’s material displays, Big-men and their groups were competing for status by demonstrating their power . This circumstance explains why the emergence of material display as a channel of status competition depended on rising population density. In small-scale communities, the ability to amass power depends heavily on density. At low densities, this ability is constrained, limiting the importance of material distribution as a mode of status competition. As densities rise, however, these constraints erode until, at a threshold of around 50–55 people/km2, power –– manifest in material displays––becomes the main channel of status competition.