A multitrajectory, competition model of emergent complexity in human social organization

The repeated pattern of emergent human organization at a societal level going from small-scale, egalitarian decentralized societies to complex, stratified, and centralized societies is well-documented in the archaeological record of past societies. In this paper, I outline a multitrajectory model that relates to the broad features of this sequence of societal change. Competition is shown to play a critical role in the way interaction—among decision making, demographic parameters, and social units that organize resource ownership and procurement—either promotes or inhibits change in social organization. Multiagent simulation is discussed as a way to link culturally embedded decision making to emergent properties in the multitrajectory model.