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Power, Fairness, and Architecture: Modeling Early Chiefdom Development in the Central Andes
Author(s) -
Stanish Charles,
Haley Kevin J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
archeological papers of the american anthropological association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1551-8248
pISSN - 1551-823X
DOI - 10.1525/ap3a.2004.14.053
Subject(s) - chiefdom , architecture , evolutionary game theory , game theory , simple (philosophy) , power (physics) , evolutionary psychology , sociology , geography , anthropology , economic geography , epistemology , political science , archaeology , economics , mathematical economics , politics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , law
This chapter models the development of complex architecture in simple chiefly societies in the Central Andes. We employ a theoretical framework that draws from evolutionary game theory, economic anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and comparative behavioral science. In this theoretical framework, the evolution of culture equates with the evolution of human cooperation in ever‐larger groups. As “conditional cooperators,” humans will create complex labor organizations under the appropriate conditions. Taking into account recent research in evolutionary game theory, we demonstrate how these conditions were met for the first time on the Peruvian coast and then spread to the highlands using examples from both the coast and the altiplano.