[FRIAM] Evolutionary transitions between egalitarian and despotic societies

[Nicholas Thompson]

Hi, Jochen,

Not sarcastic.   It was to show the exploratory nature of such models.   I
do believe that the most mysterious feature of charisma is the behavior of
the charasmees.  However this election turns out, almost half the country
is about to willingly offer up it's political autonomy to a potential
dictator.  Whatever my faults, I try, try, TRY not to do sarcasm.  I do
wonder if we could build models that explore under what circumstances it is
better for everybody to do SOMETHING  then to take the time to pool
information and do the right thing.

In general evolutionary history has no actual power to constrain our
present behavior.   Our behavior is constrainted by present events and
present behavioral repertoire.

Nick

On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 2:37 PM Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:

> In her book "The Social Instinct" Nichola Raihani mentions in chapter 17
> the article "An evolutionary model explaining the Neolithic transition from
> egalitarianism to leadership and despotism" from Simon T. Powers as a model
> how despotic regimes and dominance hierarchies have evolved in early
> human societies.
>
> https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2014.1349
>
> It reminds me of our recent discussion triggered by Nick's (sarcastic?)
> proposal to explain parts of the MAGA movement in terms of evolutionary
> psychology. Simon T. Powers is an interdisciplinary researcher working at
> the University of Sterling
>
> https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/2013555
>
> A more recent article from him about "Modelling transitions between
> egalitarian, dynamic leader and absolutist power structures" can be found
> here
>
> https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/publication/2041639
>
>
> -J.
>
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-- 
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
nthompson at clarku.edu
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
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