Complexity Theory and Anthropology: Simulations
Some Examples of models and simulations on the WWW: Tom Gatewood, Catherine M. Cameron, Tom Abel, Michael Fischer
Tim Kohler Anasazi Village Formation simulation, a unique agent-based modeling effort in its use of real world paleoproduction estimates to drive the model.
J. Stephen Lansing: The Bali Model (Mac only) was created to explore the relationship between Balinese water temple networks and rice terrace ecology. From this site you can download the original simulation model; an instruction manual; recent publications and several short video clips. Download video: "Water Temple Networks" (3 minutes) Download video: "The Green Revolution in Bali" (3 minutes) Download free software to play videos Also: MacroScope, a Computer-assisted Tool for applied anthropology. Download article: "The Value of a River", Journal of Political Ecology Simulation model: This model enables users to evaluate the economic and ecological effects of alternative management scenarios for the Skokomish river. You will need to obtain a free run-time version of the Stella© modelling software in order to run this model (Mac or Windows)
J. Stephen Lansing More information about the Bali Model (NSF Anthropology nuggets)
Ron Eglash African Fractals / Native American Cybernetics / Community Informatics / Communication Studies / Race/Ethnicity in Science and Technology Appropriating Technology: vernacular science and social power / Social Studies of Cybernetics / Complexity Theory and Practice / International Study Group on Ethnomathematics
Tom Abel Complex Adaptive Systems, Evolutionism, and Ecology within Anthropology / Within Limits: Two Simulations of Culture Change / Two Animations of Culture Change
Michael Fischer Chapter on simulation, 1994 / Search for references on simulation from the CSAC Anthropology and Computing Bibliography / A description of a simulation of production by the Kapauku.
Dwight Read Kinship based demographic simulation of societal processes / computer program for mathematically modeling the logic underlying kinship terminologies
Cathy Small Invisible History: A Computer Simulation Experiment (in Virtual Polynesia)
Cathy Small Simulating Social Dynamics Workshop, Northern Arizona Univ.
Anne Di Piazza spread of the 'Lapita people': a demographic simulation
Doug White Controlled Simulation of Marriage Systems, comparing actual marriage behavior in any given historical or contemporary population (in which suitable data are available) with simulated random marriage behavior given the demographic constraints in the population. argues for the possibility, as a more distant goal, of a radical unification of social science theories about norms and behavior in this field that overcomes the divisions between: behaviorist approaches that treat norms as statistically frequent behaviors; subjective idealist approaches treating norms as typical beliefs of individuals or as common patterns inferred from survey questions, etc.; and historical institutionalist approaches that emphasize the coherence of written law or case law, which may also act as a constraint on behavior, or as Durkheimian ìsocial factî impinging on individual behavior.
Doug White's another idea for simulation