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Using energy consumption as a measure, a team of international scientists found that ancient civilizations engaged in globalization were more than previously thought, suggesting that an integrated global economy was not new and could benefit to companies for years.
This archaeological research is the first of its kind because, instead of focusing on specific regions or cultures, it has used radiocarbon dating to examine human societies on a larger scale and in the longer term.
The findings are the result of a study co-authored by Jacopo A. Baggio, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Central Florida and published today in the journal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research team included lead author Jacob Freeman, assistant professor of archeology at the University of Utah, and Erick Robinson, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming.
The researchers found that societies often experienced periods of prosperity and recession, a process known as synchrony.
They used radiocarbon dating and historical documents to measure energy use over a period of history ranging from about 10,000 to 400 years, a period that covers much of the present day of the Holocene.
The higher the energy consumption, the more likely the company is to thrive with the population and the political and economic activity.
Among the areas examined are the western United States, the British Isles, Australia and northern Chile.
Radiocarbon dating came from preserved organics such as seeds, animal bones and burnt wood from old waste deposits at these sites. Radiocarbon dating measures the radioactive decay of the 14 carbon atom of organic matter to determine the age of organic matter.
The researchers' findings suggest that early globalization may have been a strategy for societies to develop through migration, commerce and conflict with other distant societies when a society's carrying capacity began. to be overloaded.
Baggio, who is also a member of the National Center for Integrated Coastal Research and the Coastal Sustainable Systems Research System of UCF, said that it was particularly important to study the resilience of companies or their ability to recover from a long-term disaster and radiocarbon dating. is a useful tool for this evaluation.
"Resilience is intrinsically dynamic," Baggio said. "So it becomes very difficult to understand resilience in a short period of time, here we have the opportunity to look at these longer trends and see how society has responded and adapted and what these booms, teach some lessons to learn for modern society. "
The researcher said that the rise and fall of societies seem to be an integral part of civilization.
"Our data stop at 400 years and there has been a huge shift from organic economies to fossil fuel economies," Baggio said. "However, similar timing trends are continuing even more, given the interdependencies of our societies."
Freeman said the new study suggests that the process of creating bridges between societies and becoming interdependent, known as globalization, has also played out in human society millennia ago.
"If every culture was unique, you would expect to see no synchronization, or harmony, between human energy consumption registers," Freeman said.
Mr. Robinson said that it was important to look at not only crops at specific times, but also in the long run.
"We have to come back and forth between different spatial and temporal scales in order to understand the whole situation," Robinson said.
"When we take a broader perspective, we are always interdependent, regardless of our cultural differences"
While interconnection has benefits for companies, there may also be problems, Robinson said.
"The more we become closely linked and interdependent, the more vulnerable we are to a major social or ecological crisis in another country that is spreading in our country," he said. "The more we are synchronized, the more we put all our eggs in one basket, the less we are adapted to unforeseen changes."
"The financial crisis from 2007 to 2008 is a good recent example," said Robinson.
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