Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-8v9h9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-19T11:06:23.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agriculture and the energy-complexity spiral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Joseph A. Tainter
Joseph A. Tainter*
Affiliation:
Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322–5215. joseph.tainter@usu.edu https://qcnr.usu.edu/directory/tainter_joseph
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The study of cultural complexity is entwined with ancestors myths from contemporary cosmology. Gowdy & Krall expose this mythology by arguing that complexity emerged from economic changes following cultivation. There is more, however, to the development of cultural complexity. Complexity can emerge from abundant energy or from addressing societal problems, which compels still further energy production.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Boulding, K. E. (1959) Foreword. In: Population: The first essay, by Malthus, T. R., pp. v–xii. University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Childe, V. G. (1944) Progress and archaeology. Watts Google Scholar
Diamond, J. (1997) Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Lewis, H. T. (1973) Patterns of Indian burning in California: Ecology and ethnohistory. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers 1. Ballena Press.Google Scholar
Malthus, T. R. (1798) An essay on the principle of population. J. Johnson.Google Scholar
Steward, J. H. (1938) Basin-Plateau aboriginal sociopolitical groups. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 120. U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Tainter, J. A. (1988) The collapse of complex societies. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar