The complex structure of hunter-gatherer social networks
The complex structure of hunter-gatherer social networks
复制标题
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2007.0564
复制
发表时间：
2007-09-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Brown, James H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hamilton, Marcus J.;Milne, Bruce T.;Brown, James H.
在自然界中，许多不同类型的复杂系统形成了分层的、自相似的或分形的结构，这些结构已经进化到最大化内部效率。在本文中，我们询问狩猎采集社会是否表现出类似的结构特征。我们利用分形网络理论分析了339个狩猎采集社会中1189个社会群体的统计结构。我们发现群体结构确实是自相似的或分形的，属于每个连续更高层次的组织的个人或群体的数量呈现出接近4的恒定比率。此外，尽管狩猎采集社会具有广泛的生态、文化和历史多样性，但这种显著的自相似性在文化内部和跨大陆都存在。我们发现分支比例与复杂环境中的密度依赖性繁殖有关，并假设等级组织的一般模式反映了网络的自相似特性，以及控制社会群体内部和之间物质资源、基因和非遗传信息流动的潜在凝聚力和破坏性力量。我们的研究结果为人类社会的能量学提供了见解，并表明人类社会网络的自组织响应于自然界中许多复杂系统形成背后的类似优化原则。
In nature, many different types of complex system form hierarchical, self-similar or fractal-like structures that have evolved to maximize internal efficiency. In this paper, we ask whether hunter-gatherer societies show similar structural properties. We use fractal network theory to analyse the statistical structure of 1189 social groups in 339 hunter-gatherer societies from a published compilation of ethnographies. We show that population structure is indeed self-similar or fractal-like with the number of individuals or groups belonging to each successively higher level of organization exhibiting a constant ratio close to 4. Further, despite the wide ecological, cultural and historical diversity of hunter-gatherer societies, this remarkable self-similarity holds both within and across cultures and continents. We show that the branching ratio is related to density-dependent reproduction in complex environments and hypothesize that the general pattern of hierarchical organization reflects the self-similar properties of the networks and the underlying cohesive and disruptive forces that govern the flow of material resources, genes and non-genetic information within and between social groups. Our results offer insight into the energetics of human sociality and suggest that human social networks self-organize in response to similar optimization principles found behind the formation of many complex systems in nature.