Sublime

Both are dynamic systems in which the selfish actions of countless individuals—whether they be cells or investors—lead to unpredictable consequences at the system level. In turn, these collective actions and consequences feed back to influence individual actions in endless cycles of adaptation and evolution.

studying the motivations of individuals in isolation: the patterns we see are a fundamentally social affair. More, as Anderson

model assumptions based on the properties of

The sudden shift to large-scale copper production that began about 2100–2000 BCE in the earliest Sintashta settlements must have been stimulated by a sharp increase in demand. Central Asia is the most likely source. The increase in metal production deeply affected the internal politics of northern steppe societies, which quickly became accustomed t

functional and therefore become stable and observable. Such patterns are expressed not so much in terms of people’s race, ethnicity, language, or place of birth but in what they do for a living.

Archaeologists’ interpretations of premodern tribal borders have changed in the last forty years. Most pre-state tribal borders are now thought to have been porous and dynamic—frontiers, not boundaries. More important, most are thought to have been ephemeral. The tribes Europeans encountered in their colonial ventures in Africa, South Asia, the Pac

When the pecking order status of a national superorganism slides, a frustrated populace looks for someone to blame, preferably a character located conveniently close to home.

Additional factors facilitating the spread of disease are the movements of armies and the expansion of international trade. The latter factor should be qualified by noting that international trade expands in the precrisis period (stagflation phase) and then gradually declines after the society has descended into anarchy. Thus, the rise of widesprea

paleontology,