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From small-scale cooperative herding groups to nomadic empires – a cross-cultural approach

Project description

From cooperative herding groups to hierarchical societies

What do we know about nomadic empires? Can we explain the transition of cooperative pastoralist groups to complex organisations? The livestock (as the primary source of wealth) is believed to reduce inequalities and prevent pastoralism of supporting hierarchical societies. However, there is evidence that environmentally induced livestock losses sharpen wealth inequalities. The EU-funded COMPLEXITY project will develop a theoretical explanation of political organisation from acephalous societies in Africa to imperial confederations in Inner Asia by perceiving cooperative herding groups as the building blocks of nomadic societies. The project will cross-culturally document the prevalence of cooperative herding groups, investigate how evolutionary factors impact pastoral cooperation and how cooperation affects pastoral performance and inequality.

Objective

The main question of this research project is: can political complexity evolve from small-scale cooperative groups? The predominant view of nomadic empires – that they are caused by contact with agricultural neighbours – cannot explain how pastoralists transitioned from small, kin-based cooperative herding groups to complex hierarchical groups with the power to conquer their sedentary neighbours. By perceiving cooperative herding groups as the building blocks of nomadic societies, this project aims to develop a theoretical explanation of pastoral political organisation ranging from acephalous societies in Africa to imperial confederations in Inner Asia. While cooperative herding has been documented, previous studies have been based on single case studies. Thus, a cross-cultural investigation of pastoral cooperation is lacking. There is also a view that livestock, as the primary source of wealth, limits the development of inequalities, making pastoralism unable to support complex or hierarchical organisations. However, evidence indicates that environmentally induced livestock losses exacerbate rather than limit the development of wealth inequalities. COMPLEXITY rectifies this situation through three steps. First, by combining a systematic literature review of the ethnographic material with information in the eHRAF World Cultures database, COMPLEXITY will cross-culturally document the prevalence of cooperative herding groups. Second, by using a pluralistic methodology, e.g. experimental economic games, observations and interviews, COMPLEXITY will comparatively investigate to what degree pastoral cooperation is structured by evolutionary factors – such as kinship, reciprocity, social network structure, and norms – and investigate how cooperation affect pastoral performance and inequality. Third, by combining empirical data with modelling techniques, COMPLEXITY investigates whether cooperative herding groups can be considered prototypes for more complex organisations.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2021-COG

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Host institution

STIFTELSEN NORSK INSTITUTT FOR KULTURMINNEFORSKNING
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 998 859,00
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 998 859,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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