Islands of Order: A Guide to Complexity Modeling for the Social Sciences

J. Stephen Lansing; Murray P. Cox

Book

Islands of Order

A Guide to Complexity Modeling for the Social Sciences

J. Stephen Lansing and Murray P. Cox
Preface by: Michael R. Dove and Michael R. Dove

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2019

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About this book

Two pioneering anthropologists reveal how complexity science can help us better understand how societies change over time

Over the past two decades, anthropologist J. Stephen Lansing and geneticist Murray Cox have explored dozens of villages on the islands of the Malay Archipelago, combining ethnographic research with research into genetic and linguistic markers to shed light on how these societies change over time. Islands of Order draws on their pioneering fieldwork to show how the science of complexity can be used to better understand unstable dynamics in culture, language, cooperation, and the emergence of hierarchies.

Complexity science has opened exciting new vistas in physics and biology, but poses challenges for social scientists. What triggers fundamental, discontinuous social change? And what brings stable patterns—islands of order—into existence? Lansing and Cox begin with an incisive and accessible introduction to models of change, from simple random drift to coupled interactions, phase transitions, co-phylogenies, and adaptive landscapes. Then they take readers on a series of journeys to the islands of the Indo-Pacific to demonstrate how social scientists can harness these powerful tools to discover out-of-equilibrium social dynamics. Lansing and Cox address empirical questions surrounding the colonization of the Pacific, the relationship of language to culture, the emergence and disappearance of male and female hierarchies, and more.

Unlocking new possibilities for the social sciences, Islands of Order is accompanied by an interactive companion website that enables readers to explore the models described in the book.

Author / Editor information

J. Stephen Lansing is Director of the Complexity Institute and Professor in the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His books include Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali (Princeton). Murray P. Cox is Professor of Computational Biology at Massey University in New Zealand.

Reviews

"A major achievement. The breadth and depth of this brilliant book, from rich ethnography to elaborate agent-based models, are awe inspiring and standard setting."—Scott E. Page, author of The Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in the Knowledge Economy

"This exceptional book is chock-full of ideas that can inspire a new generation of researchers in the study of human societies using the framework of complex systems."—Mark Moritz, Ohio State University

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Frontmatter
i

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CONTENTS
vii

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FIGURES
xi

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TABLES
xiii

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FOREWORD. The Malay Archipelago Revisited
xv
Michael R. Dove

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PREFACE
xxi

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CHAPTER 1. Models of Change
1

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CHAPTER 3. Dominance, Selection, and Neutrality
46

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CHAPTER 4. Language and Kinship in Deep Time
68

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CHAPTER 5. Islands of Cooperation
97

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CHAPTER 6. Adaptive Self-Organized Criticality
118

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CHAPTER 7. Transition Paths
136

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CHAPTER 8. From the Other Shore
154

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APPENDIX A. Correlation Functions
183
Lock Yue Chew

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APPENDIX B. Game and Lattice Models
185

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APPENDIX C. Intra- and Intersubak Coordination of Irrigation
187

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APPENDIX D. Fisher Information
190
Lock Yue Chew and Ning Ning Chung

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APPENDIX E. Energy Landscape Analysis
192
Lock Yue Chew and Ning Ning Chung

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APPENDIX F. Survey Questions Used in Chapter 7
194

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INDEX
203

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

October 21, 2019

eBook ISBN:

9780691197531

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691197531

eBook ISBN: 9780691197531

Keywords for this book

Subak (irrigation); Ecology; Power law; Phase transition; Social science; Sumba; Emergence; Haplotype; Irrigation; Anthropologist; Y chromosome; Population genetics; Austronesian languages; Kinship; Evolution; Attractor; Population size; Molecular clock; Result; Trade-off; Correlation function; Archaeology; Case study; Principal component analysis; Austronesian peoples; Geneticist; Daisyworld; Mitochondrial DNA; Speech community; Self-organization; Demography; Hunter-gatherer; Genetic diversity; Probability; Effective population size; Language family; Prediction; Charles Darwin; Self-organized criticality; Nonlinear system; Nonlinear Dynamics (journal); New Guinea; Denisovan; Energy landscape; Fisher information; Generative science; The Malay Archipelago; Wallacea; Historical linguistics; Explanation; Local adaptation; Pleistocene; Wallace Line; Parameter; Year; Indonesia; Mutation rate; Matrilineality; Calculation; Reproductive success; Borneo; Maxima and minima; Terrace (agriculture); Genetic distance; Genetic structure; Upstream and downstream (DNA); Demographic history; Phase portrait; Likelihood function; Pest control

Audience(s) for this book

For a non-specialist adult audience

Islands of Order

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

FIGURES

TABLES

FOREWORD. The Malay Archipelago Revisited

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1. Models of Change

CHAPTER 3. Dominance, Selection, and Neutrality

CHAPTER 4. Language and Kinship in Deep Time

CHAPTER 5. Islands of Cooperation

CHAPTER 6. Adaptive Self-Organized Criticality

CHAPTER 7. Transition Paths

CHAPTER 8. From the Other Shore

APPENDIX A. Correlation Functions

APPENDIX B. Game and Lattice Models

APPENDIX C. Intra- and Intersubak Coordination of Irrigation

APPENDIX D. Fisher Information

APPENDIX E. Energy Landscape Analysis

APPENDIX F. Survey Questions Used in Chapter 7

INDEX

Bibliographic data