Doctoral dissertation research: The Emergence of Social Complexity

This doctoral dissertation research seeks to explain how centralized leadership and unequal social structures develop in small-scale human societies. Archaeological materials are used to reconstruct patterns of settlement, cultural transmission, and trade, examining how individuals, families, and groups interact to manage competing and mutual interests.

In contrast to past approaches, this research decouples inegalitarianism from categories such as chiefdom and state, instead focusing on the relationships between individual and group-level behavior—essential to understanding key issues related to competition, cooperation, privatization, and sharing. The project also engages students in public outreach programs, providing training in archaeology and data analysis techniques.

The project examines how leadership and inequality emerged among hunter-gatherers by focusing on three key dimensions of social behavior: cooperation versus competition, provisioning versus prestige, and anarchy versus hierarchy. First, the researcher investigates whether hunter-gatherer communities were more cooperative or competitive by analyzing settlement patterns.

Were people working together to share resources, or did competition push them into new areas? Next, the study examines how hunting and resource sharing were tied to social status. Did people hunt primarily to feed their families, or did successful hunters gain prestige and influence by sharing with others?

This is explored through a morphometric analysis of stone projectile points to determine whether design traits reflect prestige-based learning. Finally, the project studies the flow of trade goods like tools and beads to understand how social networks formed. As these networks expanded, did certain groups take on more centralized roles, marking a shift toward hierarchy and inequality?

By examining these dimensions, the research provides a clearer picture of how relatively egalitarian societies evolved unequal social structures with formal leadership.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.