The role of ecosettlement systems in human

social evolution



This essay will examine how the role of settlements has changed depending on the nature of the
world-systems in which they are embedded.

SETTLEMENT SYSTEM OF NOMADS

(a) IN THE BEGINING......

NOMADS- Big game hunters moved rapidly into territories that were rich in large huntible
and tasty animals. In two known instances (Australia about 40,000 years ago, and the New
World about 12,000 years ago) after arrival of the hunters within two thousand years
occurred the extinction of many species of mega fauna due to extensive hunting- FOOD
being the only importance.

A distinctive projectile point 5cm spear point with a fluted face (used for hunting) is found
all over North America, and it is believed that the paleoindians followed herds in very large
and rather regular annual MIGRATION circuits.

A regular settlement pattern is established with respect to the migratory pattern followed
by the animals- SETTLEMENT BASED ON FOOD SOURCE.

The migrating bands would come together annually in a place with sufficient food stocks to
allow for a big gathering, and often adjacent to quarries.

(b) AFTER THE DEPLETION OF FAUNA......

Due to extensive hunting for, depletion of major fauna occurs. This leads, to the greater
reliance of vegetable gathering FLORA and marine resources. Projectile style (spears)
became smaller- distinctive regional styles emerged.

(c) MIGRATION CIRCUITS


Shift toward more diversified foraging corresponded with spatially smaller and more
regular annual migration circuits

People began developing regional identities and restricting their migrations to
smaller and more densely occupied territories (see Figure).

We were already moving down the food chain in order to accommodate a larger
population.





THE FIRST VILLAGERS- move from nomadism to sedentism

The earliest sedentary societies were of diversified foragers in locations in which nature was
bountiful enough to allow hunter-gatherers to feed themselves without migrating.

Settlement size hierarchies emerged when a village at a crucial location, often the
confluence of two streams, became the home place of important personages and the
location of larger ritual- SPIRUTAL ESSENCE EMERGES

Sedentary people developed long-distance trading networks and short distance food
source.

The shift from nomadism to sedentism can be understood as a transition from a system in
which people move to resources to one in which resources are moved to people.

Over time...trade expanded leading to the expansion in settlement with arrival of OCEANIC
VOYAGING.


SETTLEMENT SIZE HIERARCHIES

The emergence of social hierarchies is often related to size hierarchies of settlements.

The building of monumental architecture in large settlements has been closely associated
with the emergence of more hierarchical social structures.


Urban geographers suggest that a spatial size hierarchy is related to the distribution of
functions across settlements and transportation costs. Goods and services that can easily be
distributed across a whole region from a central point will be located in the largest central
settlement, whereas products that cannot easily be stored or transported will be produced
locally in all the smaller settlements. The range of goods creates the space economy.





(a) On a plain terrain
(b) On a simple Hilly terrain
(c) Three tiered
(d) Four tiered


THE VOLCANO MODEL

The first cities were residential quarters built around monumental centres.

The Sumerian cities faced warfare so elevating a judicial platform- a strong king to lead them
in war.
Thus the central temple came to share space with the palace, often adjacent to a main gate.
The first cities were oval in shape, and when walls were built for defence, they conformed to
this shape (see Figure 10).

Residential neighbourhoods were complex warrens of high-density housing for protection
against enemies. Square cities and grid street patterns were later inventions.





From the point of view the structure of population density both ancient and most modern
industrial cities conform to the same concentric volcano model.

A central non-residential district (business or monumental or both) is surrounded by
concentric rings of decreasing density, with low-density suburbs as the outer ring. This is the
basic structure of nearly all cities from the beginning in Mesopotamia 5000 years ago, to
most cities in the world today that were built before the advent of the automobile (see Figure
11).







CHANGE IN VOLCANO MODEL- AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRIES (eg. Los angles)

Many suburbs, each having a core automobile industry.



Type A: concentric-radial cities organized around a central business district with transportation
corridors radiating out from it.

Type B: multicentre low density cities that are mainly suburban with relatively small non-
residential centres dispersed across the built-up landscape (e.g. L.A.)

Type C: a mixture of these two where the older concentric structure has become edged by a newer
multicentric and low-density region (so-called edge cities).

WORLD CITIES DEVELOPMENT- STAGES

Empires/ settlements were formed based on the resources, labour and the potential use of
land- maximum they can extract from the land they live.

Later, due to networks, MONEY and POWER became the reasons for the settlement and
emergence of cities
For example, the emergence of cities along the periphery for trade and economy.

As time passes, Money and power became two different things.
Example,
LONDON city denser due to its capital and economy. Equally, the Westminster empire in
London holds the equal status due to its Political dominance.

In United states, New York- Economy
Washington- Power

TECHNOLOGY and communication- resulted in the settlement/ growth of cities not only
along the periphery but also to the core because the communication facilitated in trade in
any part of the world.


PRESENT SCENARIO....

Concentration on developed cities has changed. Instead, several cities emerge and grow around the
main city. Example- eastern US

Through the ages, there is growth in settlement due to certain pattern respective of SOCIAL and
CULTURAL and POLITICAL needs. The rural and urban division is created.
When there are no such urban cities and everyone lived only in the rural part of it, energy is
extensively used due to the search of resources.
When if there are only urban cities, huge direct effect on the environment, as cities absorb heat
from the sun and then release it, and humans use energy in cities, which contributes to global,
warming.


We can expect that new forms of governance relevant to solutions of the emergent problems of
the twenty-first century will likely be invented and implemented in the cities of some of the semi
peripheral countries, (still emerging not fully established countries) especially Brazil, India,
Mexico and China.
Curitiba, Brazil has already demonstrated a new form of sustainable urbanism that will become
increasingly relevant as the natural resources that have been the basis of sprawl becomes
depleted.