From small-scale cooperative herding groups to nomadic empires – a cross-cultural approach

This project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Excellent Science programme (Consolidator Grant No. 101043382) and is led by Research Professor Marius Warg Næss.

Background

In 1242, Europe stood on the precipice of destruction. Based in Hungary and Serbia, the Mongol armies were poised for conquering the rest of Europe. Only the death of the Great Khan halted the Mongol advance, sparing Europe from the fate of an inevitable conquest. Twenty-five years after the withdrawal, the Mongol Empire reached its peak with the establishment of the Yuan dynasty – making it the largest land empire in history, stretching from the Sea of Japan to the Mediterranean Sea and the Carpathian Mountains.

COMPLEXITY’s central thesis is that before large-scale conflict is even possible, a level of within-group cooperation must be present.

Noteworthy, it is almost impossible for pastoralists to survive without cooperative labour investment and help from other households.

By viewing cooperative herding groups as the building blocks of nomadic societies, COMPLEXITY aims to increase our understanding of the evolution of political complexity based on a new theoretical explanation of pastoral political organisation.

COMPLEXITY adds to state of the art through three steps.

Step 1: Herding Groups

While cooperative herding has been documented, previous studies have been based on single case studies.

Evidence is also fragmented, and little systematic attempts have been made to understand general patterns of pastoral cooperation.

The first step of COMPLEXITY is thus to cross-culturally analyse and document the prevalence of cooperative herding groups by using the existing ethnographic literature and a cross-cultural database.

This will be used to select four field sites in Africa and Inner Asia where the overall starting point is to select two communities at two sites within each region.  

Step 2: Patterns of Cooperation and inequality

Understanding cross-cultural diversity and patterns in behaviour is a central goal of human behavioural ecology.

Nevertheless, the predominant view of cooperation is shaped by studies focusing on food sharing among foragers.

In contrast, less focus has been placed on cooperative production, the primary form of cooperation among pastoralists.

Consequently, COMPLEXITY’s second step is to use field studies to comparatively investigate to what degree pastoral cooperation is structured by evolutionary factors – such as:

• Kinship,
• Reciprocity,
• Social network structure

And investigate how cooperation affects pastoral performance and inequality.

The field studies will use a mixed methodology, for example using:

• Experimental economic games,
• Observation,
• Interviews, and
• Social network analyses.

Step 3: Modelling Complexity

There is also a view that livestock, as the primary source of wealth, limits the development of inequalities, making pastoralism unable to support complex organisations.

Nevertheless, studies have shown significant pastoral inequalities.

Since we cannot observe the history of nomadic empires, COMPLEXITY’ will model if, for example, livestock as wealth can generate inequalities resulting in hierarchical power structures.

The third step is thus to combine empirical data with Agent-Based Modelling, to investigate whether cooperative herding groups can be considered prototypes for more complex organisations.

Funding

People