Phase transitions in social hierarchies with a distribution of resources

(caciques y cabezones)

Marcelo del Castillo-Mussot, Gerardo G. Naumis, Gerardo Vzquez, Luis Prez

Instituto de Fsica, UNAM. Mxico D.F.,

Introduction Our interests: energy and society Social hierarchies

Bonabeau model of social hierachies. The role of resources.

Conclusions

Hierarchies in animals
Our abilities has planted:

humans at the center of the universe.

Plato differentiated two distinct souls, Man, with two souls: one, capable of reason. Non-human animals, only brute mortal soul.

C. Darwin, 1859, animal fitness: key to evolution

Inside species, there are social hierarchies

Many animals held territories. Entry into foreign areas causes fighting. Thus animals are forced to spread out. Surplus animals may be expelled, or may stay on as non-breeders.

Gregarious animals develop hierarchies. Dominant animals often have first choices. Lowest members of the hierarchy suffer food shortages, This limits their reproduction rate.
Example: hens exhibit this type of hierarchy: the pecking order.

Sociological consensus:
Class formation in historic times did not take place through gradual differentiation in pacific economic competition, but was the result of violent conquest and subjugation." (Franz Oppenheimer).

Social stratification is relatively rigid; social position determined by ancestors. (example: slavery)

Everybody wants to rise (of course!!): role of education and productivity.

Bonabeau Model
E. Bonabeau, G. Theraulaz, J.L. Deneubourg, Physica A 217, 1157 (1995).

Territory: a square lattice with N sites M agents are placed at random:

M p N

Agents chose at random one of the 4 neighbouring sites and try to move there: 1) Site empty: stay there. 2) Site not empty: FIGHT

Figths are decided at random. h(i) is the history (or fitness) of agent i, and his probability of winning is:

1 1 e
( h ( j ) h ( i ))

If the agresor wins, he and the defensor interchange places. For the winner h(i) h(i)+1, and the looser h(i) h(i)-1. is a parameter ORDER PARAMETER (DEGREE OF HIERARCHY)

q2

Enhanced phase transition: D. Stauffer, Int. J. Mod. Phys. C 16, 8 (2003).

Our modifed rules of movement

At the beginning, a value is assigned to each site of the lattice at random, following a certain distribution (natural resources) or with a certain geometry (Mxico USA border) An agent always moves to the richest site in the neighbourhood. Special cases arise when two or more sites have similar values. Rule: decide at random among rich sites. If the original site has the same value of the richest neighbour, jump in order to recover Bonabeau model when all sites are rich or poor.

Results
Diffusivity
1 D lim t N t i 1
N

xi2

Valuable sites per capita

1 m N

m
i 1

Percolation of rich sites: order parameter and diffusivity

Amplification of the diffusivity

Wealth or money per capita: percolation

Non-Percolation of rich sites: order parameter and diffusivity

Distribution of valuable sites per capita: non-percolation of rich sites

Caciques y cabezones

Cacique phase: lack

of global information and glassy behavior

CONCLUSIONS
The introduction of valuable sites enhance hierarchies even at low populations (except at high populations and high concentration of rich sites).

If there are few valuable sites, there is a high inequality due to local power: caciques.
The system can be trapped in a cacique phase, as in a glass, due to lack of global information about the available resources.