Cliodynamics is a transdisciplinary area of research integrating historical macrosociology, cultural and social evolution, economic history/cliometrics, mathematical modeling of long-term social processes, and the construction and analysis of historical databases. Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes original articles advancing the state of theoretical knowledge in this transdisciplinary area. In the broadest sense, this theoretical knowledge includes general principles that explain the functioning, dynamics, and evolution of historical societies and specific models, usually formulated as mathematical equations or computer algorithms. Cliodynamics also has empirical content that deals with discovering general historical patterns, determining empirical adequacy of key assumptions made by models, and testing theoretical predictions with data from actual historical societies. A mature, or ‘developed theory’ thus integrates models with data; the main goal of Cliodynamics is to facilitate progress towards such theory in history and cultural evolution.
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Current Issue, Volume 7, Issue 2, 2016
Articles
Circumscription Theory of the Origins of the State: A Cross-Cultural Re-Analysis
Zinkina, Julia; Korotayev, Andrey; Andreev, Alexey
Reports
Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends
Korotayev, Andrey V; Zinkina, Julia; Andreev, Alexey
Mapping the Spread of Mounted Warfare
Turchin, Peter; Currie, Thomas E.; Turner, Edward A. L.
Social Evolution Forum
Developing the Field Site Concept for the Study of Cultural Evolution
Wilson, David Sloan; Whitehouse, Harvey
Book Reviews
A Review of Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Kradin, Nikolay
A Review of Tim Lewens’ Cultural Evolution: Conceptual Challenges
Mullins, Daniel
Fear over Hope: A Review of Dominic Johnson’s God is Watching You
Collins, Christina
On the map at the end (which is brilliant, btw), there is a section of central Asia where we see what looks like a very long lag time between sections which are only separated by a relatively small north-south distance. Any idea about this? Was this due to bactrian camels being used, and that slowing the spread of horse-based warfare? Some geographic barrier I don’t know about? Preferential east-west axis for cultural spread across Eurasia, a la Jared Diamond? Or is this just not understood yet?
Hi Ross, this is a very perceptive comment! The pattern of spread strongly supports a modification of Diamond east-west hypothesis that we published in JSWR (link below). The spread is easiest with an ecological “biome” (see article for details). There is more I can tell, but I’ll save it for a blog post!
http://peterturchin.com/PDF/Turchin_Adams_Hall_2006.pdf
Nice article! Also, I look forward to the blog post!