Varied Trajectories of Chiefdomization

Robert Drennan, of the University of Pittsburgh, and his co-authors seek to understand better the chiefdomization process that produced the earliest complex societies by pursuing a comparative archaeological analysis of some 60 "natural experiments" around the world. Their approach to quantification and analysis is grounded much more in the highly graphical tools of the Exploratory Data Analysis school than in classical statistics. It confronts problems that have arisen when quantification of archaeological data is divorced from meaningful context, and it pursues understanding of social dynamics by investigating patterns in the highly varied trajectories that chiefdomization has taken in different regions.

In this Quantitative History Webinar, Robert Drennan explains how their approach puts into practice the idea sometimes attributed to the American author Mark Twain that "history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme." The different rhymes that can be seen in chiefdomization trajectories lead eventually to chiefly societies with different characteristics.

Robert's co-authors: Christian E. Peterson (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa) and C. Adam Berrey (Sacramento State University)

Discussant: Daniel Hoyer (Evolution Institute and University of Oxford)

Live on Zoom on March 10, 2022
10:00 Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore
11:00 Tokyo | 13:00 Sydney
Previous Day 18:00 Los Angeles | 21:00 New York/Pittsburgh