Complex society
[3] According to traditional theories of how states emerged, the initial spark for the development of complex societies was an agricultural surplus.
The economic transition from an agricultural economy to a division of labor is the most basic explanation of how societies go from primitive to complex.
The prevalent theory which explains the start of complex societies is the pressure exuded by warfare or a method to organize a population of approximately more than 150.
[9] Before expanding into a fully developed empire, the Ubaid culture had the domestication of animals and plants such as: wheat, barley, lentils, sheep, goats, and cattle.
Chiefdoms are stratified societies that characteristically have a two-tier settlement pattern, with a central town for administrative and religious duties surrounded by satellite farming villages.
The concept of a complex society and modern state was born from a need for cohesive organization and for protection from external threats.
[citation needed] The transition from agrarian, nomadic individuals to industrial and sedentary habits emerged from the improvements made in agricultural and central food planning.
[12] The establishment of a nomadic society entails an emergence of social relations, affecting the patterns and roles each person is tasked with as means for survival.
[15] Aiding in not only population growth, but also the specialization and division of labor needed to form a complex industrial society.
The transition occurs as a result of specialization in the means of labor, with some people rising to power as rulers and administrators, while others remained as food producers.
[5] Political hierarchy entails a division between specialization, placing some members in charge of administration and institutions with the highest controls of enforcement.
States hold unanimous power to resolve disagreement and possess the mechanisms to coerce people as means to achieve order.
Institutions allow for the state to coordinate the actions of its society so as to defend itself, settle disputes within its borders, improve production means, protect the welfare of its people, and thus create the material and cultural developments we appreciate today.
It was important for cities to be located close to watered areas and would depend on trade through ports and this would include rivers.
[5] It was important for the employer to trust the employee, many would form networks in helping each other by proving a recommendation in exchange of returning the favor.
Food produce besides corn, bean and squash, squirrel, deer, birds, snakes, crocodile, iguana were also consumed.
[21] Prior to 3000 BCE the Nile river valley and delta were, like the majority of the world, small agricultural societies loosely associated with little cohesion.
The first unified kingdom was founded by King Menes in 3100 BCE which led to a series of successful dynasties which cultivated the development of Egyptian cultural identity.
By the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, Egypt was a fully integrated empire with a complex vertical hierarchical bureaucracy which enacted the will of its ruler and interacted with every citizen.
The economic strength and military might of these dynasties spread their influence and presence through the Eastern Mediterranean as well as into North Africa and southward in Nubian controlled territories.
The evolution of ancient Gaul into early modern France provides an example to how complex societies have come into being.
Early modern France was a five-level hierarchy where the largest level of organization was divided in provinces, gouvernements, which was then in turn subdivided into smaller units called bailliages.
[24] This theory makes sense as a society can engage in warfare to grow and increase in size, resources and diversity.
In a 2009 paper Turchin and Gavrilets argue that the emergence of complex societies is a response to the existential threat of violent warfare.
[23] They build upon the work of Karl Jaspers' conception of the Axial Age, whereby in the era 800 - 200 BC human societies undergo a revolutionary shift.
When war takes place across a meta-ethnic frontier, such as between agricultural and nomadic peoples, is when warfare is sufficiently intense to shift the society into a different state.
The colonization of these places by European powers functioned as a meta-ethnic frontier in which warfare met the necessary level of intensity to forge the complex society.
Tainter gives the Western Roman Empire, the Maya civilization, and the Chaco culture as examples of collapsed complex societies.
This did not solve the problem in the long run because the Roman Empire expanded more and bigger challenges such as escalating costs related to communications, army, and civil governments and also crop failure became massive.
[27] This gained the support of Ugo Bardi, Sara Falsini, and Ilaria Perissi's study "Toward a General Theory of Societal Collapse.
