Societies without scale

Societies without scale, ontologies without mereologies, complexity contra modernity

Ryan Schram
University of Sydney
November 28, 2024

Slides available at https://anthro.rschram.org/talks/complexity

The south coast of Duau (Normanby Island), within Papua New Guinea

Figure 1: A Google Maps image of Normanby Island with a placemark on Kurada, a Catholic mission station on the lands of the Auhelawa (Ulada) people.

Segmentary order: Nested levels

A directed graph of circular nodes branching from a common ancestor, depicting the ordering of social functions among segments of a matrilineage.

Figure 2: A social order based on the principle of unilineal descent is segmentary, with segments of different levels performing distinct functions.

A wide network based on analogies

A bimodal graph consisting of square and circle nodes. Circle nodes connect multiply to square nodes, and two circle nodes with an arc between them (indicating an analogical similarity) each connect to the same square node.

Figure 3: Social order is assembled by links based on analogies among elements. Similarities at one level are the basis for positing a more abstract unity, yet the bases for similarities are many.

Different combinations of yams and humans over time

A three-part sequence illustrating the legendary history of the origin of yams on Duau using emoji. Yams in a canoe crash ashore, and then propagate along lines of women horticulturalists.

Figure 4: Yams move along chains of people. A society is merely a specific configuration of yams and humans.

Two types of complexity

When an era of reflexive modernization ends, how should we conceptualize complexity?

What conceptualizations of the complexity of social reality are needed for an era of deglobalization and competing alternatives to (neo)liberal governmentality?

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