Social Complexity and the Origins of Agriculture: the Complex-systems Theory of Culture

Theory is the foundation of science, and it constitutes the basis for the distinctive objective nature of scientific knowledge. This book demonstrates that it is possible to construct a general theory of cultural evolution that scientifically explains cultural phenomena in conceptually objective terms. The theory synthesized here is called the ¿Complex-Systems Theory of Culture¿, and it is used to explore the origins of agriculture in the Near East and the nature and evolution of social complexity. This theory is based on the principles of Complexity Theory and Implicit Learning Theory, and it explains cultures as complex information systems. Cultures are conceived as open systems that are dependant on and maintained by a flow of information. Social complexity is linked to the origins of agriculture through the advent of a number of mechanisms that produce an expanded and differentiated flow of information in subsequent cultures. The implication of this theoretical view is that modern cultures continue to increase in complexity as the information flow that sustains them continues to become more differentiated.