This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ziltener, P. Articles by Mueller, H.-P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Weight of the Past

Traditional Agriculture, Socio-political Differentiation and Modern Development in Africa and Asia: A Cross-National Analysis

University of Zurich, Switzerland, zaibat{at}soziologie.unizh.ch

Hans-Peter Mueller

University of Zurich, Switzerland, hpm68{at}gmx.net

Twenty years ago, Lenski and Nolan published a seminal article in which they established empirical links between modern development and traditional technology in developing countries. This analysis is expanded in two ways: by improving the indicators of traditional technologies, and by introducing a second dimension of structural complexity, the socio-political differentiation of traditional societies. Though two indices measure functionally related aspects, they have distinct impacts on the socio-economic development of the 65 non-western countries analyzed in this article. Since traditional socio-political differentiation explains modern development better than traditional technology, we suggest significant revisions, and a new interpretation of Lenski and Nolan's results.

Key Words: agriculture • Africa • Asia • ecological-evolutionary theory • economic growth

References

• Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J.A. (2001) `The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation', American Economic Review 91: 1369—401.
• Alesina, A., Devleeschauwer, A.W., Kurlat, S. and Wacziarg, R. (2003) `Fractionalization', Journal of Economic Growth 8(2): 155—94. Available online at: [www.stanford.edu/wacziarg/downloads/fractionalization.pdf].[CrossRef]
• Barro, R.J. (1997) Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
• Barro, R.J. and Sala-i-Martin, X. (1995) Economic Growth. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Barry, H. and Schlegel, A. (1984) `Measurements of Adolescent Sexual Behavior', Ethnology 23: 315—29.[CrossRef]
• Barry, H., Child, I.L. and Bacon, M.K. (1959) `Relation of Child Training to Subsistence Economy ', American Anthropologist 61: 51—63.[CrossRef]
• Bayart, J.-F. (1993) The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. London: Longman.
• Bollen, K. (1983) `World System Position, Dependency, and Democracy: The CrossNational Evidence', American Sociological Review 48: 468—79.[CrossRef]
• Boserup, E. (1970) Woman's Role in Economic Development. New York: St Martin's.
• Boserup, E. (1981) Population and Technological Change: A Study of Long-Term Trends. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Boswell, T. (1989) `Colonial Empires and the Capitalist World-Economy: A Time Series Analysis of Colonization, 1640—1960', American Sociological Review 54: 180—96.[CrossRef]
• Bowden, E. (1969) `Indices of Sociocultural Development and Cultural Accumulation: An Exponential Cultural Growth Law and a ``Cultural Surgency'' Factor', American Anthropologist 71: 1112—15.[CrossRef]
• Brock, W.A. and Durlauf, S.N. (2001) `Growth Empirics and Reality', World Bank Economic Review 15: 229—72.[Abstract]
• Broude, G.J. (1976) `Cross-cultural Patterning of Some Sexual Attitudes and Practices', Behavior Sciences Research 4: 227—59.
• Broude, G.J. (1981) `The Cultural Management of Sexuality', in R.H. Munroe, R.L. Munroe and B.B. Whiting (eds) Handbook of Cross-Cultural Human Development, pp. 633—73. New York: Garland STPM Press.
• Bruk, S.I. and Apentschenko, W.S. (1964) Atlas naradow mira [Atlas of the World Population]. Moscow: Miklukho-Maklai Ethnological Institute at the Department of Geodesy and Cartography of the State Geological Committee of the USSR.
• Burton, M.L. and Reitz, K.P. (1981) `The Plow, Female Contributions to Agricultural Subsistence, and Polygyny', Behavior Science Research 16: 275—305.
• Burton, M.L. and White, D.R. (1984) `Sexual Division of Labor in Agriculture', American Anthropologist 86: 568—83.[CrossRef]
• Burton, M.L. and White, D.R. (1987) `Cross-cultural Surveys Today', Annual Revue of Anthropology 16: 143—60.
• Caputo, C.G. (1973) `A Cross-cultural Analysis of Sexual Restrictions and Cultural Complexity', dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in candidacy for the degree of doctor of philosophy.
• Carneiro, R.L. (1973) `Scale Analysis, Evolutionary Sequences and the Rating of Cultures', in R. Naroll and R. Cohen (eds) A Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology, chapter 41. New York: The Natural History Press.
• Carneiro, R.L. (1987) `The Evolution of Complexity in Human Societies and its Mathematical Expression', International Journal of Comparative Sociology 28: 111—128.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Chabal, P. and Daloz, J.-P. (1999) Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Chase-Dunn, C. and Hall, T.D. (1995) `Cross-World-System Comparisons: Similarities and Differences', in S.K. Sanderson (ed.) Civilizations and World-Systems: Studying World-Historical Change, pp. 109—35. Walnut Creek, PA: Altamira Press.
• Chase-Dunn, C. and Hall, T.D. (2000) `Comparing World-Systems to Explain Social Evolution', in R. Denemark et al. (eds) World System History: The Social Science of Long-Term Change, pp. 86—111. London: Routledge.
• Chick, G. (1997) `Cultural Complexity: The Concept and its Measurement', Cross Cultural Research 31: 275—307.[CrossRef]
• Clements, F.E. (1954) `Use of Cluster Analysis with Anthropological Data ', American Anthropologist 56: 180—99.[CrossRef]
• Cohen, M.N. (1989) Health and the Rise of Civilization. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Cohen, R. and Schlegel, A. (1968) `The Tribe as a Socio-political Unit: A Cross-cultural Examination', in J. Helm (ed.) Essays on the Problem of Tribe, Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, pp. 120—46. Seattle, WA: American Ethnological Society.
• Crenshaw, E.M. (1993) `Polity, Economy and Technoecology: Alternative Explanations for Income Inequality', Social Forces 71: 807—16.[CrossRef]
• Delacroix, J. and Ragin, C.C. (1978) `Modernizing Institution, Mobilization, and Third World Development: A Cross-National Study', American Journal of Sociology 84: 123—50.[CrossRef]
• Delacroix, J. and Ragin, C.C. (1981) `Structural Blockage: A Cross-National Study of Economic Dependency, State Efficacy, and Underdevelopment', American Journal of Sociology 86: 1311—47.[CrossRef]
• Denton, T. (2004) `Cultural Complexity Revisited', Cross-Cultural Research 38: 3—26.
• Diamond, J. (1997) Guns, Germs and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies. London: Jonathan Cape.
• Divale, W.T. (1976) `Female Status and Cultural Evolution: A Study in Ethnographer Bias', Behavior Science Research 11: 169—211.
• Dow, M.M. (1985) `Agricultural Intensification and Craft Specialization ', Ethnology 24: 137—52.[CrossRef]
• Driver, H.E. and Schuessler, K.F. (1963) `Factor Analysis of Ethnographic Data', American Anthropologist 59: 655—63.
• Easterly, W. (1997)'Life During Growth', World Bank Working Paper No. 17, World Bank, Washington, DC (published in 1999 in Journal of Economic Growth 4(3): 239—75).
• Easterly, W. and Levine, R. (1997)'Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions ', The Quarterly Journal of Economics 112: 1203—50.[CrossRef]
• Eckhardt, K.W. (1971) `Exchange Theory and Sexual Permissiveness', Behavior Sciences Notes 6: 1—18.
• Ember, C.E. (1983) `The Relative Decline in Women's Contribution to Agriculture with Intensification', American Anthropologist 85: 285—304.[CrossRef]
• Evans, P. (1989) `Predatory, Developmental and Other Apparatuses: A Comparative Political Economy Perspective on the Third World State', Sociological Forum 4(4): 561—87.[CrossRef]
• Evans, P. (1995) Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Evans, P. and Rauch, J.E. (1999) `Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of Weberian State Structures on Economic Growth', American Sociological Review 64: 748—65.[CrossRef]
• Firebaugh, G. (1983) `Scale Economy of Scale Entropy? Country Size and Rate of Economic Growth, 1950—1977', American Sociological Review 48: 257—69.[CrossRef]
• Firebaugh, G. and Beck, F.D. (1994) `Does Economic Growth Benefit the Masses? Growth, Dependence, and Welfare in the Third World', American Sociological Review 59: 631—53.[CrossRef]
• Freeman, L.C. and Winch, R.F. (1957) `Societal Complexity: An Empirical Test of Typology of Society', American Journal of Sociology 62: 461—6.[CrossRef]
• Gellner, E. (1989) Plough, Sword, and Book. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Goody, J. (1986) The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society: Studies in Literacy, Family, Culture and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Goody, J. (2000) The Power of the Written Tradition. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Gouldner, A.W. and Peterson, R.A. (1962) Notes on Technology and the Moral Order. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
• Grier, R.M. (1997) `The Effect of Religion on Economic Development. A Cross National Study of 63 Former Colonies', Kyklos 50: 47—62.[CrossRef]
• Grier, R.M. (1999) `Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth', Public Choice 98: 317—35.[CrossRef]
• Hall, T.D. (1983) `Peripheries, Regions of Refuge, and Nonstate Societies: Toward a Theory of Reactive Social Change', Social Science Quarterly 64: 582—97.
• Hall, T.D. (1986) `Incorporation in the World-System: Toward a Critique ', American Sociological Review 51(3): 390—402.[CrossRef]
• Hall, T.D. (2000) `World-Systems, Frontiers, and Ethnogenesis: Rethinking the Theories', in T.D. Hall (ed.) A World-Systems Reader: New Perspectives on Gender, Urbanism, Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, and Ecology, pp. 237—70. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Hallpike, C.R. (1986) The Principles of Social Evolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Harner, M.J. (1970) `Population Pressure and the Social Evolution of Agriculturalists', Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26(1): 67—86.
• Harrison, L. and Huntington, S.P. (eds) (2000) Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. New York: Basic Books.
• Heise, D., Lenski, G. and Wardwell, J. (1976) 'Further Notes on Technology and the Moral Order', Social Forces 55(2): 316—37.[CrossRef]
• Hendrix, L. (1985) `Economy and Child Training Reexamined', Ethos 13: 246—61.[CrossRef]
• Herkenrath, M. (2002) `Quantitative Cross-National Analysis as a Research Tool in the Sociology of Developing Countries: A Critical Examination', Current Sociology 50: 517—30.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Jaggers, K. and Gurr, T.R. (1998) Polity98: Regime Characteristics, 1800—1998. Ann Arbor: Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, available online at: [http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/polity ].
• Johnson, C. (1982) MITI and the Japanese Miracle. The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925—75. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Johnson, C. (1999) 'The Developmental State: Odyssey of a Concept ', in M. Woo-Cumings (ed.) The Developmental State, pp. 32—60. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
• Kagitçibasi, C. (1996) Family and Human Development Across Cultures. A View from the Other Side. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Kentor, J. (2000) Capital and Coercion: The Economic and Military Processes that have Shaped the World-Economy 1800—1990. New York: Garland.
• Khoury, P.S. and Kostiner, J. (eds) (1990) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R. (1999) `The Quality of Government', Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 15: 222—79.[Abstract]
• Leftwich, A. (2001) States of Development: On the Primacy of Politics in Development. Oxford: Polity Press.
• Lenski, G. (1966) Power and Privilege: A Theory of Stratification. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Lenski, G. (1994) `Societal Taxonomies: Mapping the Social Universe', Annual Review of Sociology 20: 1—26.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Lenski, G. and Lenski, J. (1982) Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Lenski, G. and Nolan, P.D. (1984) `Trajectories of Development: A Test of Ecological-evolutionary Theory', Social Forces 63: 1—23.[CrossRef]
• Levinson, D. and Malone, M.J. (1980) Toward Explaining Human Culture. New Haven, CT: HRAF Press.
• Lomax, A. and Arensberg, C.M. (1977) `A Worldwide Evolutionary Classification of Cultures by Subsistence Systems', Current Anthropology 18(4): 659—708.[CrossRef]
• Lomax, A. and Berkowitz, N. (1972) `The Evolutionary Taxonomy of Culture', Science 177: 228—39.[Free Full Text]
• Maddison, A. (2001) The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. Bonn: OECD.
• Martin, M.M. (1978) `Women in the HRAF Files: A Consideration of Ethnographer Bias', Behavior Science Notes 4: 303—13.
• Mauro, P. (1995) `Corruption and Growth', The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110: 681—712.[CrossRef]
• McNett, C.W. (1973) `A Settlement Pattern Scale of Cultural Complexity ', in R. Naroll and R. Cohen (eds) A Handbook of Method in Cultural Anthropology, pp. 872—86. Garden City, NY: Columbia University Press.
• Meyer, J.W., Hannan, M.T., Rubinson, R. and Thomas, G.M. (1979) `National Economic Development, 1950—70: Social and Political Factors', in J.W. Meyer and M.T. Hannan (eds) National Development and the World System. Educational, Economic, and Political Change, pp. 85—116. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Meyer, J.W., Ramirez, F.O., Rubinson, R. and Boli-Bennett, J. (1979) `The World Educational Revolution, 1950—1970', in J.W. Meyer and M.T. Hannan (eds) National Development and the World System. Educational, Economic, and Political Change, pp. 37—55. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Minge-Klevana, W. (1980) `Does Labor Time Decrease with Industrialization? A Survey of Time-allocation Studies', Current Anthropology 21: 279—87.
• Mueller, G. and Bornschier, V. (1989) Comparative World Data. A Statistical Handbook for Social Science. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Mueller, H.-P., Kock, C., Seiler, E. and Arpagaus, B. (1999) Atlas vorkolonialer Gesellschaften. Sozialstrukturen und kulturelles Erbe der Staaten Afrikas, Asiens und Melanesiens [Atlas of Pre-colonial Societies: Cultural Heritage and Social Structures of African, Asian and Melanesian Countries] Berlin: Reimer.
• Mueller, H.-P., Ziltener, P. and Linder, W. (2001) Cultural and Political Foundations of Socio-economic Development in Africa and Asia. Geneva: United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
• Murdock, G.P. (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
• Murdock, G.P. (1986) `Ethnographic Atlas (revised and enlarged)', World Cultures 2.
• Murdock, G.P. and Provost, C. (1973) `Measurement of Cultural Complexity', Ethnology 12: 379—92.[CrossRef]
• Murray, M.J. (1980) The Development of Capitalism in Colonial Indochina (1870—1940). Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Nardi, B.A. (1981) `Modes of Explanation in Anthropological Population Theory: Biological Determinism vs. Self-regulation in Studies of Population Growth in Third World Countries', American Anthropologist 83: 28—56.[CrossRef]
• Naroll, R. (1956) `A Preliminary Index of Social Development', American Anthropologist 58: 687—715.[CrossRef]
• Naroll, R. and Cohen, R. (1973) (eds) A Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. New York: The Natural History Press.
• Nolan, P.D. (2002) `Ecological Evolutionary Theory: A Reanalysis and Reassessment of Lenski's Theory for the 21st Century', in Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Chicago, IL. Published (2004) Sociological Theory 22(2): 328—37.
• O'Brian, R. (1999) `Who Weaves and Why? Weaving, Loom Complexity, and Trade', Cross-Cultural Research 33: 30—42.
• Otterbein, K.F. (1970) The Evolution of War: A Cross-cultural Study. New Haven, CT: HRAF-Press.
• Pryor, F.L. (1985) `The Invention of the Plow', Sociology and History 27: 727—43.
• Pryor, F.L. (1986) `The Adoption of Agriculture', American Anthropologist 88: 879—97.[CrossRef]
• Przeworski, A., Alvarez, M.E., Cheibub, J.E. and Limongi, F. (2000) Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-being in the World, 1950—1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Putterman, L. (2000) `Can an Evolutionary Approach to Development Predict Post-War Growth?', Journal of Development Studies 36: 1—30.
• Rauch, J.E. and Evans, P.B. (2000) `Bureaucratic Structure and Bureaucratic Performance in Less Developed Countries', Journal of Public Economics 75: 49—71.[CrossRef]
• Ross, M.H. (1981) `Socioeconomic Complexity, Socialization, and Political Differentiation: A Cross-cultural Study', Ethos 9: 217—48.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Rudmin, R.W. (1996) `Cross-cultural Correlates of the Ownership of Private Property: Zelman's Gender Data Revisited', Cross-Cultural Research 30: 115—53.
• Rudolph, L. and Rudolph, S. (1967) The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
• Sachs, J.D. and Warner, A. (1997)'Sources of Slow Growth in African Economies', Journal of African Economies 6: 335—76.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Sandbrook, R. (1985) The Politics of Economic Stagnation in Tropical Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sanderson, S.K. (2005) `World-Systems Analysis after Thirty Years', International Journal of Comparative Sociology 46(3): 179—213.[Abstract]
• Sawyer, J. and Levine, R.A. (1966) `Cultural Dimensions: A Factor Analysis of the World Ethnographic Sample', American Anthropologist 68: 708—31.[CrossRef]
• Schwartz, R.D. and Miller, J.C. (1964) `Legal Evolution and Societal Complexity', American Journal of Sociology 70: 159—69.[CrossRef]
• Seipes, R.G. (1980) Population Growth, Society and Culture: An Inventory of Cross Culturally Tested Hypotheses. New Haven, CT: HRAF-Press.
• Snyder, D. and Kick, E.L. (1979) `Structural Position in the World System and Economic Growth, 1955—1970: A Multiple-network Analysis of Transnational Interactions ', American Journal of Sociology 84: 1096—126.[CrossRef]
• Stewart, R.A. and Jones, K.J. (1972) `Cultural Dimensions: A Factor Analysis of Textor's Cross-Cultural Summary', Behavior Science Notes 7: 37—81.
• Tasa, C. (1988) A Cross-cultural Study of the Evolution of Social Stratification and the State. Buffalo: State University of New York.
• Tatje, T.A. and Naroll, R. (1970) `Two Measures of Social Complexity: An Empirical Cross-cultural Comparison', in R. Naroll and R. Cohen (eds) A Handbook of Method in Cultural Anthropology, pp. 766—833. New York: Natural History Press.
• Taylor, C.L. and Hudson, M.C. (1972) World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2000) Handbook of Statistics 2000 (CD-ROM). Geneva: UNCTAD.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ( 1995) Human Development Report: Gender and Human Development. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ( 2000) Human Development Statistical Database 1999 — Full Text Human Development Reports, 1990—1999 (CD-ROM).
• Weinreb, A.A. (2001) `First Politics, Then Culture: Accounting for Ethnic Differences in Demographic Behavior in Kenya', Population and Developent Review 27: 437—68.[CrossRef]
• Wickrama, K.S.A. and Mulford, C.L. (1996) `Political Democracy, Economic Development, Disarticulation and Social Well-Being in Developing Countries', Sociological Quarterly 37: 375—90.[CrossRef]
• Witkowski, S.R. and Burris, H.W. (1981) `Societal Complexity and Lexical Growth', Behavior Science Research 16: 143—59.
• Woo-Cumings, M. (ed.) (1999) The Developmental State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
• World Bank (1999) World Development Indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank.
• World Bank (2000) World Development Indicators 2000. Washington, DC: World Bank.

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 48, No. 5, 371-415 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0020715207081935


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ziltener, P. Articles by Mueller, H.-P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?