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The ecology of empire

The dynamics of strategic differentiation-integration in two competing Western European biocultural groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2019

Aurelio José Figueredo ,
Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre ,
Heitor Barcellos Ferreira Fernandes ,
Sara Lindsey Lomayesva ,
Michael Anthony Woodley ,
Steven Charles Hertler  and
Matthew Alexandar Sarraf
Aurelio José Figueredo
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Heitor Barcellos Ferreira Fernandes
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Sara Lindsey Lomayesva
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Michael Anthony Woodley
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Steven Charles Hertler
Affiliation:
College of Saint Elizabeth
Matthew Alexandar Sarraf
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
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Abstract

We tracked the relative integration and differentiation among life history traits over the period spanning AD 1800–1999 in the Britannic and Gallic biocultural groups. We found that Britannic populations tended toward greater strategic differentiation, while Gallic populations tended toward greater strategic integration. The dynamics of between-group competition between these two erstwhile rival biocultural groups were hypothesized as driving these processes. We constructed a latent factor that specifically sought to measure between-group competition and residualized it for the logarithmic effects of time. We found a significantly asymmetrical impact of between-group competition, where the between-group competition factor appeared to be driving the diachronic integration in Gallic populations but had no significantly corresponding influence on the parallel process of diachronic differentiation in Britannic populations. This suggests that the latter process was attributable to some alternative and unmeasured causes, such as the resource abundance consequent to territorial expansion rather than contraction.

Keywords

social biogeographylife history strategybetween-group competitionlexicographic methodslimiting similarity theory
Type
Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , Fall 2019 , pp. 210 - 225
Copyright
© Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 2019

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