Ortman Scott, Lobo José
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0233, USA.
Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
Sci Adv. 2020 Jun 19;6(25):eaba5694. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5694. eCollection 2020 Jun.
A defining feature of the contemporary world is economic growth, and the most frequently cited cause is technological change, especially with respect to energy capture and information processing. This framing masks the potential for economic growth in nonindustrial societies, but there is growing evidence for episodes where the material conditions of life did improve in the preindustrial past. Here, we explore a potential mechanism behind these improvements. We use settlement scaling theory to distinguish agglomeration-driven from technology-driven growth, and then we apply this framework to archaeological evidence from the Pre-Hispanic Northern Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico, USA. Results suggest that agglomeration-driven or "Smithian" growth was the dominant factor behind improvements in the material conditions of life over time in this society. We also summarize evidence that this growth took place in the context of a stable regional population, declining levels of inequality, and increasingly inclusive social institutions.
当代世界的一个显著特征是经济增长，而最常被提及的原因是技术变革，特别是在能源获取和信息处理方面。这种观点掩盖了非工业社会经济增长的潜力，但越来越多的证据表明，在工业化之前的过去，生活物质条件确实有过改善的时期。在此，我们探讨这些改善背后的一种潜在机制。我们运用聚落规模理论来区分集聚驱动型增长和技术驱动型增长，然后将这个框架应用于美国新墨西哥州前西班牙时期北里奥格兰德普韦布洛人的考古证据。结果表明，集聚驱动型或“斯密型”增长是这个社会生活物质条件随时间改善的主要因素。我们还总结了证据，表明这种增长是在区域人口稳定、不平等程度下降以及社会制度日益包容的背景下发生的。
