The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology.
Archaeologists and other scholars have long studied the causes of collapse and other major social transformations and debated how they can be understood. This article instead focuses on the human experience of living through those transformations, analyzing 18 transformation cases from the US Southw...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1d5981ccb5e848398cf872c641bff375 2023-05-15T17:33:45+02:00 The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. Michelle Hegmon Matthew A Peeples LTVTP-NABO collaboration 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 https://doaj.org/article/1d5981ccb5e848398cf872c641bff375 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 https://doaj.org/article/1d5981ccb5e848398cf872c641bff375 PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 11, p e0208060 (2018) Medicine R Science Q article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 2022-12-31T10:21:35Z Archaeologists and other scholars have long studied the causes of collapse and other major social transformations and debated how they can be understood. This article instead focuses on the human experience of living through those transformations, analyzing 18 transformation cases from the US Southwest and the North Atlantic. The transformations, including changes in human securities, were coded based on expert knowledge and data analyzed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis techniques. Results point to the following conclusions: Major transformations, including collapses, generally have a strong and negative impact on human security; flexible strategies that facilitate smaller scale changes may ameliorate those difficulties. Community security is strongly implicated in these changes; strong community security may minimize other negative changes. The relationships among the variables are complex and multi-causal; while social transformation may lead to declines in human securities, declining conditions of life can also push people to transform their societies in negative ways. Results show that some societies are better able to deal with difficulties than others. One important policy implication is that community security and local conditions can be instrumental both in helping people to cope with difficulties and in staving off some of those difficulties. A multi-scalar approach is essential as we face the increasing problems of climate change in the decades ahead. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLOS ONE 13 11 e0208060 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Michelle Hegmon Matthew A Peeples LTVTP-NABO collaboration The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. |
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Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Archaeologists and other scholars have long studied the causes of collapse and other major social transformations and debated how they can be understood. This article instead focuses on the human experience of living through those transformations, analyzing 18 transformation cases from the US Southwest and the North Atlantic. The transformations, including changes in human securities, were coded based on expert knowledge and data analyzed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis techniques. Results point to the following conclusions: Major transformations, including collapses, generally have a strong and negative impact on human security; flexible strategies that facilitate smaller scale changes may ameliorate those difficulties. Community security is strongly implicated in these changes; strong community security may minimize other negative changes. The relationships among the variables are complex and multi-causal; while social transformation may lead to declines in human securities, declining conditions of life can also push people to transform their societies in negative ways. Results show that some societies are better able to deal with difficulties than others. One important policy implication is that community security and local conditions can be instrumental both in helping people to cope with difficulties and in staving off some of those difficulties. A multi-scalar approach is essential as we face the increasing problems of climate change in the decades ahead. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Michelle Hegmon Matthew A Peeples LTVTP-NABO collaboration |
author_facet |
Michelle Hegmon Matthew A Peeples LTVTP-NABO collaboration |
author_sort |
Michelle Hegmon |
title |
The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. |
title_short |
The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. |
title_full |
The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. |
title_fullStr |
The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The human experience of social transformation: Insights from comparative archaeology. |
title_sort |
human experience of social transformation: insights from comparative archaeology. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 https://doaj.org/article/1d5981ccb5e848398cf872c641bff375 |
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North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 11, p e0208060 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 https://doaj.org/article/1d5981ccb5e848398cf872c641bff375 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060 |
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PLOS ONE |
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13 |
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