Abstract
In the third of three chapters about the origins of human settlements in deep history, Bowen and Gleeson use their general systems theory (GST) model to describe the evolutionary process that led some settlements to grow into large networks of settlements, i.e., civilizations, and others to remain small and/or vanish entirely. All settlements, and larger civilizations, must continually evolve their own cultural capacities to solve problems related to material systems, living systems, and social systems within whatever boundaries they encounter in their local and/or regional environments. Every settlement, and every civilization, eventually has been overwhelmed by its own limitations. The problems that come with complexity at the largest scale have never yet been solved by any previous civilization.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Alesina, Alberto, Paola Giuliano, and Nathan Nunn. 2011. On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough. Discussion Paper Series No. 5735, Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit.
Arrow, K., B. Bolin, R. Costanza, P. Dasgupta, C. Folke, C.S. Holling, B.O. Jansson, F. Levin, K.G. Maler, C. Perrings, and D. Pimentel. 1998. Economic Growth, Carrying Capacity, and the Environment. In Debating the Earth, ed. John S. Dryzek and David Schlosberg, 35–40. Oxford University Press.
Beard, Mary. 2015. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. New York: Liveright Publishing.
Bettinger, Robert L., Raven Garvey, and Shannon Tushingham. 2015. Hunter-Gatherers: Archeological and Evolutionary Theory, 2nd ed. New York: Springer.
Blau, P.M. 1960. A Theory of Social Integration. The American Journal of Sociology 65 (6): 545–556.
Carmack, R.M., J.L. Gasco, and G.H. Gossen. 2007. The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilizatoin, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dyble, M., G.D. Salali, N. Chaudhary, A. Page, D. Smith, J. Thompson, L. Vinicius, R. Mace, and A.B. Migliano. 2015. Sex Equality Can Explain the Unique Social Structure of Hunter-Gatherer Bands. Science 348 (6236): 796–798.
Fukuyama, F. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: The Free Press.
Hsu, Cho-yun. 2012. China: A New Cultural History, trans. T. Baker and M. Duke. New York: Columbia University Press.
Huntington, S.P. 1997. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Jarvenpa, Robert, and Hetty Jo Brumbach. 2014. Hunter-Gatherer Gender and Identity. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archeology and Anthropology of Hunter Gatherers, ed. V. Cummings, P. Jordan, and M. Zvelebil. New York: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, A.W., and T. Earle. 2000. The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group to Agrarian State, 2nd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Keeley, Lawrence H. 1996. War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. New York: Oxford University Press.
Khan, A. 2008. The Industrial Revolution and the Demographic Transition. Business Review (Q1): 9–15. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Available at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.415.5663&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Last accessed 16 January 2018.
Kostof, S. 1991. The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History. Stockholm: Bulfinch.
Lazaridis, I., A. Mittnik, G. Stamatoyannopoulos, et al. 2017. Genetic Origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans. Nature 548 (7666): 214–218.
Lockwood, D. 1964. Social Integration and System Integration. In Exploration in Social Change, ed. G.K. Zollschan and W. Hirsch. London: Routledge.
McEvedy, Colin, and Richard Jones. 1978. Atlas of World Population History. New York: Facts on File.
Morris, A.E.J. 1994. History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolution. 3rd ed. London: Pearson Longman.
Mumford, L. 1961. The City in History. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Pounds, Norman J.G. 1969. The Urbanization of the Classical World. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 59 (1): 135–157.
Redfield, R., and M. Singer. 1954. The Cultural Role of Cities. Economic Development and Cultural Change 3 (1): 53–73.
Simon, H. 1962. The Architecture of Complexity. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106 (6): 467–482.
Thomlinson, Ralph. 1975. Demographic Problems: Controversy Over Population Control, 2nd ed. Encino, CA: Dickenson Publishing Company.
Toynbee, A.J. 1946. A Study of History (Abridged). London: Oxford University Press.
Wade, N. 2009. The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved & Why it Endures. New York: The Penguin Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bowen, W.M., Gleeson, R.E. (2019). From Settlements to Civilizations. In: The Evolution of Human Settlements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95034-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95034-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95033-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95034-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)