Measuring the Complexity of Past Social Systems: a Task Analysis Approach to the Study of Late Prehistoric Monumentality
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Measuring the Complexity of Past Social Systems: a Task Analysis Approach to the Study of Late Prehistoric Monumentality in Iberia Gustavo Barrientos 1,2,3
& Leonardo
García Sanjuán 4
Accepted: 21 October 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this paper, we explore the heuristic potential of a set of ideas about the structural and functional complexity of systems, proposed in the 1990s by theoretical biologist Daniel McShea. In particular, we focus on the structural aspects of the complexity exhibited by social systems organized into low- and intermediate-level functional units (i.e., groups and teams). To address this subject, we describe a methodology suited for measuring the complexity in the organization of work in such systems, which is primarily based on hierarchical task analysis. With this methodology, we approach a concrete case study: the construction of megalithic monuments in late prehistoric Iberia (ca. 3800–1800 BC). On the basis of the analysis of the three best documented, most structurally, and functionally complex monuments built within each of the three periods under study (Late Neolithic, Copper Age, and Early Bronze Age), we found that there was a trend towards less complexity in work organization related to monument building from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. We discuss the importance of these results in light of the existing models of social complexity in European Later Prehistory, concluding that a more balanced view of social processes would be obtained if we look at complexity as a property of every different social system integrated into the whole society, and not as an exclusive property of the latter. Keywords Structural and functional complexity . Social systems . Work organization .
Task analysis . Megalithic monuments . Iberian Late Prehistory
* Gustavo Barrientos [email protected] Leonardo García Sanjuán [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Barrientos and García Sanjuán
Introduction Many years ago, prominent evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson told science writer Roger Lewin “It is not difficult to recognize complexity […]. The difficulty comes in how you measure it” (Lewin 1999, 136). In this short sentence, Wilson brought up two major problems in the study of complexity: its recognition and its measurement. While seemingly optimistic about the former, he expressed great concern about the latter. In this paper, we start from the idea that, at least as regards social complexity and the way it is addressed in archaeology, both aspects are still problematic and deserve further exploration. In our disciplinary field, the study of social complexity has a long history, dating back to the end of the nineteenth century (Chick 1997; Denton 1998, 2004). Since its earliest expressions, it has been approached with a clear evolutionary interest (Chick 1997), mostly framed in terms of major cultural and social achievements like the rise of civilization, urbani
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