This study seeks to examine the potential catalysts for democratic behavior in human societies. After creating a theoretical model to demonstrate that council governance is beneficial to executives in situations in which there were information asymmetries between executives and the populace, the authors decide to examine this empirically by using "caloric variability" as a potential cause of information asymmetry. The results indicate that higher caloric variability leads to a greater likelihood of council governance. Further empirical results indicate that caloric potential may be associated with higher levels of political integration, and that bureaucracy may act as a substitute for councils.

This study seeks to examine the potential catalysts for democratic behavior in human societies. After creating a theoretical model to demonstrate that council governance is beneficial to executives in situations in which there were information asymmetries between executives and the populace, the authors decide to examine this empirically by using "caloric variability" as a potential cause of information asymmetry. The results indicate that higher caloric variability leads to a greater likelihood of council governance. Further empirical results indicate that caloric potential may be associated with higher levels of political integration, and that bureaucracy may act as a substitute for councils.

This study seeks to examine the potential catalysts for democratic behavior in human societies. After creating a theoretical model to demonstrate that council governance is beneficial to executives in situations in which there were information asymmetries between executives and the populace, the authors decide to examine this empirically by using "caloric variability" as a potential cause of information asymmetry. The results indicate that higher caloric variability leads to a greater likelihood of council governance. Further empirical results indicate that caloric potential may be associated with higher levels of political integration, and that bureaucracy may act as a substitute for councils.

This study seeks to examine the potential catalysts for democratic behavior in human societies. After creating a theoretical model to demonstrate that council governance is beneficial to executives in situations in which there were information asymmetries between executives and the populace, the authors decide to examine this empirically by using "caloric variability" as a potential cause of information asymmetry. The results indicate that higher caloric variability leads to a greater likelihood of council governance. Further empirical results indicate that caloric potential may be associated with higher levels of political integration, and that bureaucracy may act as a substitute for councils.

The authors evaluated an alternative theory to the traditional productivity theory. They posit that food surplus did not precede the emergence of hierarchy, rather, the productivity advantage of cereal cultivation over tubers and roots as the catalyst for state societies. Their theory found support with a sample of societies from the present-day, Classical Antiquity, Neolithic period and pre/post Columbian Exchange. The results suggest social complexity emerged with cereal cultivation, rather than agriculture alone.

In this article, the authors seek to understand the trajectory of traditional political institutions in Africa and ask how these institutions have changed, if at all, due to colonial interference. They note that "institutions connect the past with the present", though the study of political institutions over time is often overlooked in discussions of institutional persistence and change despite their value to key components of governance and social stability. Thus, these authors investigate whether today's African institutions remain akin to their precolonial, institutional ancestors, and whether colonial governance strategies of indirect or direct rule employed by the British and French have impacted their persistence. They find evidence to support the endurance of traditional institutions in former British colonies (upward trend), whereas evidence for institutional destruction for former French colonies (downward trend).

This article examines shamans and other types of magico-religious healers. Agriculture and political integration are suggested to influence the transformation of shamans into shaman/healers, healers, or possession-trance mediums.

This article examines shamans and other types of magico-religious healers. Agriculture and political integration are suggested to influence the transformation of shamans into shaman/healers, healers, or possession-trance mediums.

This article tests Randall Collin's 1975 theory that political-economic factors, rather than family/kinship factors, predict the degree of sexual stratification in a given society. A multivariate model is tested and findings contradict the theory.

This article examines shamans and other types of magico-religious healers. Agriculture and political integration are suggested to influence the transformation of shamans into shaman/healers, healers, or possession-trance mediums.