tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8270793179032814466.post8225666373906963072..comments2024-02-12T22:50:15.027-07:00Comments on Wide Urban World: Settlement Scaling and Social Science TheoryMichael E. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03942595266312225661noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8270793179032814466.post-300082905972703492016-08-19T23:26:55.067-07:002016-08-19T23:26:55.067-07:00A Quality blog from your side about Settlement Sca...A Quality blog from your side about Settlement Scaling and Social Science Theory. Thank you for sharing it with us. It includes excellent stuff and the source that you have taken is very good so thank you once again for sharing it with us.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8270793179032814466.post-81836206322768921122016-05-10T12:15:00.322-07:002016-05-10T12:15:00.322-07:00Hello! Love your Blog! I am starting out and would...Hello! Love your Blog! I am starting out and would love any pointers you could offer!:) Thanks anyway!:) http://merelyanarm.blogspot.com/Mearly An Armhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07184383703074836073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8270793179032814466.post-75153005982877938122016-03-25T10:05:08.382-07:002016-03-25T10:05:08.382-07:00David - Yes, the measurement of social outcomes is...David - Yes, the measurement of social outcomes is a methodological issue to think about. So far, our group has measured these things: <br /><br />- area vs. population (where population is estimated from house counts), finding the same density gradient as found in modern cities. Our medieval paper on this is just about ready for re-submission after revisions. And my student Rudy Cesaretti has a bunch of ethnographic cases with the same patterns, in his MA paper.<br /><br />- house size as a measure of wealth, using aggregate house area for a settlement as a measure of total wealth. This shows superlinear scaling for some North American tribal-level archaeological cases (paper by Scott Ortman, in press), and for an Andean case as well (paper by a bunch of us, just about ready to submit).<br /><br />- plaza area as a measure of something. Plaza area shows superlinear scaling with population in New Mexico pueblos, but it shows a strange (but regular) sub-linear relationship with population in two samples of Mesoamerican cities. That paper is still in the writing stage.<br /><br />- infrastructure. There don't seem to be ancient cases where we can quantify infrastructure in a big enough sample to look at scaling, although Scott has a post-doc working on Roman cities who may find the information. <br /><br />- volume of monumental architecture would be an obvious variable to look at, but its hard to know how to characterize it. Is this a wealth-related social output, or is it a kind of infrastructure? Or with a good sample, perhaps the scaling results could help answer that question.<br /><br />Michael E. Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03942595266312225661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8270793179032814466.post-53713284822914489312016-03-25T09:45:10.837-07:002016-03-25T09:45:10.837-07:00Nice post, Mike. What are your thoughts on how to...Nice post, Mike. What are your thoughts on how to measure social vectors for wholly prehistoric contexts? Archaeologists have been good at quantifying tangible urban infrastructure, but social interactions seem like the more important variable in defining urban life. Something approaching GDP/income could perhaps be calculating using certain artifact types or labor estimates for various tasks, and we could maybe get at the potential for large assemblies of people through architecture. But I don't see prehistorians picking up traces of crime, or successfully quantifying many of the artistic/aesthetic culture that make cities exciting places today. Maybe I'm not thinking creatively enough, though.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00612430558720540781noreply@blogger.com