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Networks in the World History of Human Evolution

In: Asian Review of World Histories
Author:
Patrick Manning Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA USA

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5719-8383
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Abstract

This study presents a research design and hypotheses regarding a wide range of social groups found in long-term human history. It traces the work of the research teams that informally collaborated on the analysis discussed here: network science, which began to emerge in 1998; the earlier and still continuing tradition of Social Network Analysis; and the coalescence of multidisciplinary scholarship on human history. The paper defines social groups, describing their subgroups and their variables. The findings illustrate the number and significance of informal groups, the networked character of basic human communities, language communities as systems, and the dramatic expansion in human social scale after 20,000 years ago. Analysis at each stage centers on the assumption that each adult, as a network node, can support about nine links to other nodes. The results show the promise of relying on human networks (but also social sets and social systems) to explore the full extent of expanded social scale in long-term human history.

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