Size, Complexity, and Organizational Variation: A Comparative Approach
Size, Complexity, and Organizational Variation: A Comparative Approach
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DOI：
10.1177/1069397110383658
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发表时间：
2011-02-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Feinman, Gary M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Feinman, Gary M.
1963年，Melvin Ember阐述了社会规模（特别是最大社区规模）和等级复杂性之间的跨文化关系。然而，这项研究（以及随后的研究）发现，当专注于较小范围/较窄尺寸范围的人类群体时，尺寸-复杂性关系的规律性要小得多。本文认为，由于缺乏更精确的契合，需要考虑第三个关键参数，即不同的整合模式或人际联系。比较结果（包括共时性和历时性）被整理出来，以证明综合差异调解了人口规模和政治复杂性之间的总体关系。有人提出，当群体规模较小时，更集体运作的群体往往会抑制决策等级制度的出现；另一方面，与同等规模的更专制的群体相比，更集体或更民主的组织可能需要更大的人均行政或等级政治复杂性。
In 1963, Melvin Ember illustrated the overarching cross-cultural relationship between societal scale (specifically, maximal community size) and hierarchical complexity. Yet this study (and subsequent ones) found much less regularity in the size-complexity relationship when focused down on human groupings of less extensive/narrower size ranges. Here, it is argued that this lack of a more precise fit requires the consideration of a third key parameter, different modes of integration or interpersonal connectivity. Comparative findings (both synchronic and diachronic) are marshaled to make the case that integrative differences mediate the overarching relationship between demographic size and political complexity. It is proposed that when they are small, groups that operate more collectively often dampen the emergence of decision-making hierarchies; alternatively large, more collective, or democratic formations may necessitate greater administrative or hierarchical political complexity per capita than is found in more autocratic groups of comparable size.