Fissioning, Scalar Stress, and Social Evolution in Early Village Societies

TitleFissioning, Scalar Stress, and Social Evolution in Early Village Societies
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2004
AuthorsBandy, M. S.
JournalAmerican Anthropologist
Volume106
Issue2
Pagination322-333
AbstractTheories of social evolution have predicted that early permanent population concentrations will frequently be unstable,with fissioning the predominant mechanism for resolving intravillage conflict. It has further been suggested that village fissioning willcease with the emergence of higher-level integrative institutions. These processes have remained archaeologically undocumented. In thisarticle I attempt to identify the village fissioning process in the Formative Period of Bolivia’s Titicaca Basin. I conclude that village fissioningtook place in the Early Formative, and that it ceased with the emergence of a regional religious tradition in the Middle Formative. Theseresults confirm the utility and applicability of the evolutionary model. [Keywords: village fissioning, social evolution, scalar stress, LakeTiticaca, Bolivia]