Social resilience to climate-related disasters in ancient societies: a test of two hypotheses

Santa Fe Institute • • Published In • Pages: 1-35 •
By Peregrine, Peter N.

Hypothesis

Societies with more corporate political strategies are more resilient to catastrophic climate-related disasters

Note

Pearson's r correlations between corporate-Exclusionary Index and dependent variables: change in population (r= .241, p<.160), change in health (r=-.029, p<.452), change in conflict (r=.425, p<.050), change in household organization (r=-.091, p<.348), change in village organization (r=.182, p<.209), change in regional organization (r=.508, p<.008), change in ritual architecture and organization (r=.495, p<.010). "All but one of the correlations are in the expected direction and Conflict, Regional Organization, and Communal Ritual appear to be significantly more stable if a society has a more corporate political system preceding a climate-related disaster. This would suggest that having a more corporately-oriented political organization tends to minimize conflict following a disaster and to preserve core structures of both regional organization and the public rituals that bond groups into social units (p.12)."

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
CorrelationPartialMultiple p-valuesMultiple Pearson's R ValuesUNKNOWN

Variables

Variable NameVariable Type OCM Term(s)
Corporate-Exclusionary IndexIndependentChief Executive, Local Officials, Political Behavior
Change in HealthDependentMorbidity, Public Health And Sanitation, Public Welfare
Change in ConflictDependentIngroup Antagonisms, Instigation Of War
Change in Household OrganizationDependentHousehold
Change in Village OrganizationDependentCommunity Structure, Towns
Change in Regional Organization DependentDistricts, Provinces, Territorial Hierarchy
Change in Ritual Architecture and Organization DependentReligious And Educational Structures, Community, Ritual
Change in PopulationDependentPopulation