Introduction

The previous chapters have given various illustrations of how socio-natural systems evolved within their environment as they developed collective and individual habits, techniques, rituals and more elaborate ways of communication and organization. These developments are sequences of processes of exploitation and adaptation. Simmons (1989) lists elements and stages of these multi-faceted interaction processes: domestication, simplification, diversification and conservation. Goudsblom (1996) stresses the differentiation in behaviour and power between people and animals and between people; increasing numbers and concentrations of people; and the specialization, organization and stratification with its interdependencies. In investigating aspects higher on the scale of complexity, there is kind of a trade-off: the distant past is badly observable but fairly simple, the near past is better communicated through writing and art but – if only for that very reason – more complex.As Roberts remarks: ‘Because information shrinks rapidly backwards through time, historical myopia is created…‘(Roberts 1989: 193) The scientific evidence, particularly regarding human-environment interactions, is also biased in other ways as explained in Chapter 5.

From all the pieces of the puzzle, hypotheses and theories have emerged to put the archaeological and historical findings and facts about past societies into a more universal, abstract perspective. They are buildings blocks towards a more comprehensive and satisfactory theory of socio-natural systems – this has not been constructed yet and possibly never will. It is worthwhile inspecting the building blocks, some of which come from the natural sciences and some from the social sciences. The hypotheses and theories often start off in a qualitative, descriptive form. In a next stage, attempts appear to mould them into the language of the natural sciences, mathematics. A system boundary is defined, relevant system elements are identified and models are constructed to explore dynamic interactions between these elements.