Paula Sabloff | Santa Fe Institute (original) (raw)

Papers by Paula Sabloff

Political Behavior, Dec 1, 1995

Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionaliz... more Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionalized, i.e., taken on many of the characteristics of Congress such as yearround sessions, professional staffs, and formalized bill processes. But is professionalization a factor in legislators' decision making? Triangulated analysis—consensus, cluster, and multidimensional scaling—of two paired comparisons that were administered to a stratified random sample of a professionalized legislature suggests that some of the professionalized characteristics do affect legislators' perception of their decision making on one area of policy, the regulation of and resource allocation to public universities. The analysis also shows that influences on legislators' decision process fluctuate according to issue.

Page 1. Modern Mongolia ~Th± s One 69Q5-N5E-D6HD Page 2. Mongolia, a country that evokes romantic... more Page 1. Modern Mongolia ~Th± s One 69Q5-N5E-D6HD Page 2. Mongolia, a country that evokes romantic curiosity on the part of American readers, has emerged from its former Soviet cocoon. It has achieved independence ...

Higher Education in the Post-Communist World, 2018

Choice Reviews Online, 2012

Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond thomas barfield P astoral nomadism has been the domina... more Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond thomas barfield P astoral nomadism has been the dominant economic force in Mongolia and neighboring regions for many thousands of years. It is a grassland economy that supports a distinctive way of life that constitutes both a technoscape and an ethnoscape. That is, the pastoral nomads of the Eurasian steppe share a common and recognizable set of techniques that allow them to exploit the grasslands by means of livestock production. These include not only the common types of livestock they raise, but dwellings such as yurts and the capacity to move whole families along with the herds. The striking cultural similarities among the horse-riding steppe nomads has also given them a distinctive cultural identity that has remained for more than 2500 years. Ecological conditions and political realities have continued to favor this way of life. The steppe's severely cold winters, short growing season, and relatively low average rainfall (punctuated by cycles of drought and early frosts) made agriculture there less dependable than pastoralism. Livestock numbers, particularly among sheep and goats, could recover relatively quickly from the droughts, winter freezes, and livestock epidemics that periodically decimated the herding economy. The mobility of pastoral societies also allowed them to better weather political crises than farmers: they had the option of moving themselves and their animals out of harm's way when trouble struck. In contrast, historically

This article introduces the Seshat: Global History Databank, its potential, and its methodology. ... more This article introduces the Seshat: Global History Databank, its potential, and its methodology. Seshat is a databank containing vast amounts of quantitative data buttressed by qualitative nuance for a large sample of historical and archaeological polities. The sample is global in scope and covers the period from the Neolithic Revolution to the Industrial Revolution. Seshat allows scholars to capture dynamic processes and to test theories about the co-evolution (or not) of social scale and complexity, agriculture, warfare, religion, and any number of such Big Questions. Seshat is rapidly becoming a massive resource for innovative cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research. Seshat is part of a growing trend to use comparative historical data on a large scale and contributes as such to a growing consilience between the humanities and social sciences. Seshat is underpinned by a robust and transparent workflow to ensure the ever growing dataset is of high quality

Excel files describing all possible statuses and associated roles/behaviors for 10 premodern stat... more Excel files describing all possible statuses and associated roles/behaviors for 10 premodern states (Aztec, Benin, Late Shang China, Old Kingdom Egypt, Mycenaean Greece, Protohistoric Hawaii, Inca, Old Babylonia, Late Classic Maya, and Zapotec) and 1 premodern society (Iceland).

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2019

Comparative analysis of women rulers and main wives of kings in eight premodern states around the... more Comparative analysis of women rulers and main wives of kings in eight premodern states around the globe reveals similar patterns of political agency, or the opportunity and ability to take political action. Queen rulers, regents, and main wives substituting for their husbands in their absence made policy, but they had somewhat less political agency than male rulers. Main wives' political agency took the forms of influencing policy and people's behavior (sometimes through their role as patron to others), interceding between their kin and their husbands, advocating for one party or the other, spying, and conspiring. Therefore, women's political agency ought to be part of any political study. This study builds on the anthropological/archaeological study of agency by drawing attention to royal women's political agency and showing how the analysis of structural rules and the roles of kings, queen rulers, and main wives illuminates the societal structure in which agency is embedded. By analyzing premodern societies this way, we learn that there is remarkable similarity of agency behaviors among royal women in the eight sample societies, even though the societies emerged independently of one another.

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2017

Approaching warfare in pre-modern states from the perspective of risk reduction, we see that roya... more Approaching warfare in pre-modern states from the perspective of risk reduction, we see that royal marriage was one strategy rulers used to reduce the probability that they would lose a war. Judicious marriage exchanges intensified and prolonged patron-client relations between rulers or between rulers and societal elites. Clientelism could affect the size and composition of their armies. The more warriors and troops one could field, the greater the chance of not losing a war (Otterbein 2004; LeBlanc 2006). Examination of eight pre-modern states suggests that their rulers used the same patterns of wife exchange even though most states developed independently. Marriage secured long-term patron-client relationships, which they used to support their military efforts. When rulers married their kin or married them to rulers outside the system ("foreigners"), they did not gain military support. Analysis of these marriagemilitary patterns reveals several characteristics of pre-modern states. First, marriage alliances helped rulers form networks of support that helped them win wars. Therefore, marriage-and by extension, royal women-is a key component to the study of warfare and a critical mechanism of network formation, as Blanton et al. (1996) write. Second, alliances were based on a different organizing principle from Levi-Strauss' tribal societies, for rulers selected main wives (for themselves or their kin) based on relative rank rather than particular kinship ties. Third, marriage alliance reveals an important difference between alliance and patron-client relationships, a distinction that is often blurred in the archaeological literature.

Change in Democratic Mongolia, 2012

This chapter describes Mongolians' changing interpretation of democracy and perception of eco... more This chapter describes Mongolians' changing interpretation of democracy and perception of economic risk between 1998 and 2003, demonstrating their association with quotations and statistical analysis drawn from interviews. It suggests that Mongolians perceive economic risk as both positive and negative rather than just negative. And their interpretation of democracy - the rights and freedoms they emphasize and their interpretation of government and citizen responsibilities - frequently correlates with their views on economic risk. This chapter is based on 1,283 interviews conducted in 1998 and 2003. A few complete interviews placed side-by-side allows the reader to 'see' how people intertwine risk perception and thoughts about democracy. The chapter explains the possible association of risk perception with people's conceptualization of democracy. Keywords:democracy; economic freedoms; economic rights; economic risk perception; Mongolians

Figures Tables Contributors Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments: "-Scaping" Mongolia T... more Figures Tables Contributors Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments: "-Scaping" Mongolia Theorizing Mongolia's Connections 1. General Comments on Mapping Mongolia and Mongol Studies -G. Cameron Hurst 2. "-Scaping" Mongolia -Paula L.W. Sabloff 3. Mapping and the Headless State: Rethinking National Populist Concepts of Mongolia -David Sneath 4. Is There Such a Thing as Central/Inner (Eur)Asia and Is Mongolia a Part of It? -Christopher P. Atwood Extending Beyond Current Borders 5. The Geology, Climate, and Ecology of Mongolia -Clyde E. Goulden, B. Nandintsetseg, and L. Ariuntsetseg 6. Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond -Thomas Barfield 7. The Prehistory of Mongolian Populations as Revealed by Studies of Osteological, Dental, and Genetic Variation -Theodore Schurr and Lenore Pipes 8. Mapping Ritual Landscapes in Bronze Age Mongolia and Beyond: Unraveling the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Enigma -William W. Fitzhugh and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan Connecting to Other Polities 9. Timescapes from the Past: An Archaeogeography of Mongolia -William Honeychurch and Chunag Amartuvshin 10. Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China -Paul R. Goldin 11. Mapping Foreign Policy Interests: Mongolia's Case -Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan Index

Political Behavior, 1995

Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionaliz... more Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionalized, i.e., taken on many of the characteristics of Congress such as yearround sessions, professional staffs, and formalized bill processes. But is professionalization a factor in legislators' decision making? Triangulated analysis—consensus, cluster, and multidimensional scaling—of two paired comparisons that were administered to a stratified random sample of a professionalized legislature suggests that some of the professionalized characteristics do affect legislators' perception of their decision making on one area of policy, the regulation of and resource allocation to public universities. The analysis also shows that influences on legislators' decision process fluctuate according to issue.

... IN CRISIS New York in National Perspective edited by William C. Barba CHINA&#... more ... IN CRISIS New York in National Perspective edited by William C. Barba CHINA'S UNIVERSITIES ... I. Sabloff, Paula LW n. Series: Garland reference library of social science; v. 1122. III. ... in Berlin: Its Transformation in the Process of German Unification Helmut de Rudder^ Chapter 2 ...

American Antiquity, 1998

... Conversations with Lew Binford: Drafting the new archaeology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: A... more ... Conversations with Lew Binford: Drafting the new archaeology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Binford, Lewis Roberts (b. 1930, d. ----. Author: Sabloff, Paula LW. PUBLISHER: University of Oklahoma Press (Norman). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1998. ...

SFI Working Papers contain accounts of scienti5ic work of the author(s) and do not necessarily re... more SFI Working Papers contain accounts of scienti5ic work of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Santa Fe Institute. We accept papers intended for publication in peer-­‐reviewed journals or proceedings volumes, but not papers that have already appeared in print. Except for papers by our external faculty, papers must be based on work done at SFI, inspired by an invited visit to or collaboration at SFI, or funded by an SFI grant.

Political Behavior, Dec 1, 1995

Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionaliz... more Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionalized, i.e., taken on many of the characteristics of Congress such as yearround sessions, professional staffs, and formalized bill processes. But is professionalization a factor in legislators' decision making? Triangulated analysis—consensus, cluster, and multidimensional scaling—of two paired comparisons that were administered to a stratified random sample of a professionalized legislature suggests that some of the professionalized characteristics do affect legislators' perception of their decision making on one area of policy, the regulation of and resource allocation to public universities. The analysis also shows that influences on legislators' decision process fluctuate according to issue.

Page 1. Modern Mongolia ~Th± s One 69Q5-N5E-D6HD Page 2. Mongolia, a country that evokes romantic... more Page 1. Modern Mongolia ~Th± s One 69Q5-N5E-D6HD Page 2. Mongolia, a country that evokes romantic curiosity on the part of American readers, has emerged from its former Soviet cocoon. It has achieved independence ...

Higher Education in the Post-Communist World, 2018

Choice Reviews Online, 2012

Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond thomas barfield P astoral nomadism has been the domina... more Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond thomas barfield P astoral nomadism has been the dominant economic force in Mongolia and neighboring regions for many thousands of years. It is a grassland economy that supports a distinctive way of life that constitutes both a technoscape and an ethnoscape. That is, the pastoral nomads of the Eurasian steppe share a common and recognizable set of techniques that allow them to exploit the grasslands by means of livestock production. These include not only the common types of livestock they raise, but dwellings such as yurts and the capacity to move whole families along with the herds. The striking cultural similarities among the horse-riding steppe nomads has also given them a distinctive cultural identity that has remained for more than 2500 years. Ecological conditions and political realities have continued to favor this way of life. The steppe's severely cold winters, short growing season, and relatively low average rainfall (punctuated by cycles of drought and early frosts) made agriculture there less dependable than pastoralism. Livestock numbers, particularly among sheep and goats, could recover relatively quickly from the droughts, winter freezes, and livestock epidemics that periodically decimated the herding economy. The mobility of pastoral societies also allowed them to better weather political crises than farmers: they had the option of moving themselves and their animals out of harm's way when trouble struck. In contrast, historically

This article introduces the Seshat: Global History Databank, its potential, and its methodology. ... more This article introduces the Seshat: Global History Databank, its potential, and its methodology. Seshat is a databank containing vast amounts of quantitative data buttressed by qualitative nuance for a large sample of historical and archaeological polities. The sample is global in scope and covers the period from the Neolithic Revolution to the Industrial Revolution. Seshat allows scholars to capture dynamic processes and to test theories about the co-evolution (or not) of social scale and complexity, agriculture, warfare, religion, and any number of such Big Questions. Seshat is rapidly becoming a massive resource for innovative cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research. Seshat is part of a growing trend to use comparative historical data on a large scale and contributes as such to a growing consilience between the humanities and social sciences. Seshat is underpinned by a robust and transparent workflow to ensure the ever growing dataset is of high quality

Excel files describing all possible statuses and associated roles/behaviors for 10 premodern stat... more Excel files describing all possible statuses and associated roles/behaviors for 10 premodern states (Aztec, Benin, Late Shang China, Old Kingdom Egypt, Mycenaean Greece, Protohistoric Hawaii, Inca, Old Babylonia, Late Classic Maya, and Zapotec) and 1 premodern society (Iceland).

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2019

Comparative analysis of women rulers and main wives of kings in eight premodern states around the... more Comparative analysis of women rulers and main wives of kings in eight premodern states around the globe reveals similar patterns of political agency, or the opportunity and ability to take political action. Queen rulers, regents, and main wives substituting for their husbands in their absence made policy, but they had somewhat less political agency than male rulers. Main wives' political agency took the forms of influencing policy and people's behavior (sometimes through their role as patron to others), interceding between their kin and their husbands, advocating for one party or the other, spying, and conspiring. Therefore, women's political agency ought to be part of any political study. This study builds on the anthropological/archaeological study of agency by drawing attention to royal women's political agency and showing how the analysis of structural rules and the roles of kings, queen rulers, and main wives illuminates the societal structure in which agency is embedded. By analyzing premodern societies this way, we learn that there is remarkable similarity of agency behaviors among royal women in the eight sample societies, even though the societies emerged independently of one another.

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2017

Approaching warfare in pre-modern states from the perspective of risk reduction, we see that roya... more Approaching warfare in pre-modern states from the perspective of risk reduction, we see that royal marriage was one strategy rulers used to reduce the probability that they would lose a war. Judicious marriage exchanges intensified and prolonged patron-client relations between rulers or between rulers and societal elites. Clientelism could affect the size and composition of their armies. The more warriors and troops one could field, the greater the chance of not losing a war (Otterbein 2004; LeBlanc 2006). Examination of eight pre-modern states suggests that their rulers used the same patterns of wife exchange even though most states developed independently. Marriage secured long-term patron-client relationships, which they used to support their military efforts. When rulers married their kin or married them to rulers outside the system ("foreigners"), they did not gain military support. Analysis of these marriagemilitary patterns reveals several characteristics of pre-modern states. First, marriage alliances helped rulers form networks of support that helped them win wars. Therefore, marriage-and by extension, royal women-is a key component to the study of warfare and a critical mechanism of network formation, as Blanton et al. (1996) write. Second, alliances were based on a different organizing principle from Levi-Strauss' tribal societies, for rulers selected main wives (for themselves or their kin) based on relative rank rather than particular kinship ties. Third, marriage alliance reveals an important difference between alliance and patron-client relationships, a distinction that is often blurred in the archaeological literature.

Change in Democratic Mongolia, 2012

This chapter describes Mongolians' changing interpretation of democracy and perception of eco... more This chapter describes Mongolians' changing interpretation of democracy and perception of economic risk between 1998 and 2003, demonstrating their association with quotations and statistical analysis drawn from interviews. It suggests that Mongolians perceive economic risk as both positive and negative rather than just negative. And their interpretation of democracy - the rights and freedoms they emphasize and their interpretation of government and citizen responsibilities - frequently correlates with their views on economic risk. This chapter is based on 1,283 interviews conducted in 1998 and 2003. A few complete interviews placed side-by-side allows the reader to 'see' how people intertwine risk perception and thoughts about democracy. The chapter explains the possible association of risk perception with people's conceptualization of democracy. Keywords:democracy; economic freedoms; economic rights; economic risk perception; Mongolians

Figures Tables Contributors Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments: "-Scaping" Mongolia T... more Figures Tables Contributors Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments: "-Scaping" Mongolia Theorizing Mongolia's Connections 1. General Comments on Mapping Mongolia and Mongol Studies -G. Cameron Hurst 2. "-Scaping" Mongolia -Paula L.W. Sabloff 3. Mapping and the Headless State: Rethinking National Populist Concepts of Mongolia -David Sneath 4. Is There Such a Thing as Central/Inner (Eur)Asia and Is Mongolia a Part of It? -Christopher P. Atwood Extending Beyond Current Borders 5. The Geology, Climate, and Ecology of Mongolia -Clyde E. Goulden, B. Nandintsetseg, and L. Ariuntsetseg 6. Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond -Thomas Barfield 7. The Prehistory of Mongolian Populations as Revealed by Studies of Osteological, Dental, and Genetic Variation -Theodore Schurr and Lenore Pipes 8. Mapping Ritual Landscapes in Bronze Age Mongolia and Beyond: Unraveling the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Enigma -William W. Fitzhugh and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan Connecting to Other Polities 9. Timescapes from the Past: An Archaeogeography of Mongolia -William Honeychurch and Chunag Amartuvshin 10. Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China -Paul R. Goldin 11. Mapping Foreign Policy Interests: Mongolia's Case -Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan Index

Political Behavior, 1995

Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionaliz... more Political science research indicates that some state legislatures have become more professionalized, i.e., taken on many of the characteristics of Congress such as yearround sessions, professional staffs, and formalized bill processes. But is professionalization a factor in legislators' decision making? Triangulated analysis—consensus, cluster, and multidimensional scaling—of two paired comparisons that were administered to a stratified random sample of a professionalized legislature suggests that some of the professionalized characteristics do affect legislators' perception of their decision making on one area of policy, the regulation of and resource allocation to public universities. The analysis also shows that influences on legislators' decision process fluctuate according to issue.

... IN CRISIS New York in National Perspective edited by William C. Barba CHINA&#... more ... IN CRISIS New York in National Perspective edited by William C. Barba CHINA'S UNIVERSITIES ... I. Sabloff, Paula LW n. Series: Garland reference library of social science; v. 1122. III. ... in Berlin: Its Transformation in the Process of German Unification Helmut de Rudder^ Chapter 2 ...

American Antiquity, 1998

... Conversations with Lew Binford: Drafting the new archaeology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: A... more ... Conversations with Lew Binford: Drafting the new archaeology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Binford, Lewis Roberts (b. 1930, d. ----. Author: Sabloff, Paula LW. PUBLISHER: University of Oklahoma Press (Norman). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1998. ...

SFI Working Papers contain accounts of scienti5ic work of the author(s) and do not necessarily re... more SFI Working Papers contain accounts of scienti5ic work of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Santa Fe Institute. We accept papers intended for publication in peer-­‐reviewed journals or proceedings volumes, but not papers that have already appeared in print. Except for papers by our external faculty, papers must be based on work done at SFI, inspired by an invited visit to or collaboration at SFI, or funded by an SFI grant.

review of Herdsman to Statesman, excerpts of an autobiography of a Mongolian Communist Party leader

American Anthropologist, 2002

Steppe presents the dilemma of the Tuvan people: How can they gain greater self-determination whi... more Steppe presents the dilemma of the Tuvan people: How can they gain greater self-determination while they remain part of the Russian Federation? How can they increase political autonomy when they are economically dependent on the Federation? The Tuvan people occupy Tuva, an independent republic with its own constitution, president, and parliament. Tuva makes its own laws on some issues and sets its own budget. But the Federation maintains control over the areas of greatest concern to Tuvans. The appropriate punishments for cattle theft, procedures for obtaining international loans, environmental protection in mining operations, and the amount of the annual subvention (currently about 80 percent of total revenues) from the Russian Federation are some of those concerns.

Comparative Education Review, 2007

The Journal of Asian Studies, 2008

Visual Anthropology Review, 2004

The Wild East: Portrait of an Urban Nomad Directed by Michael Haslund-Christensen 2002 54 minutes... more The Wild East: Portrait of an Urban Nomad Directed by Michael Haslund-Christensen 2002 54 minutes, color Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films 32 Court Street, 21st Floor Brooklyn, NY 10018-3396 www.frif.com

The Lama Question, 2014

Before becoming the second socialist country in the world (after the Soviet Union) in 1921, Mongo... more Before becoming the second socialist country in the world (after the Soviet Union) in 1921, Mongolia had been a Buddhist feudal theocracy. Combatting the influence of the dominant Buddhist establishment to win the hearts and minds of the Mongolian people was one of the most important challenges faced by the new socialist government. It would take almost a decade and a half to resolve the "lama question," and it would be answered with brutality, destruction, and mass killings. Chris Kaplonski examines this critical, violent time in the development of Mongolia as a nation-state and its ongoing struggle for independence and recognition in the twentieth century. Unlike most studies that explore violence as the primary means by which states deal with their opponents, The Lama Question argues that the decision to resort to violence in Mongolia was not a quick one; neither was it a long-term strategy nor an out-of control escalation of orders but the outcome of a complex series of events and attempts by the government to be viewed as legitimate by the population. Kaplonski draws on a decade of research and archival resources to investigate the problematic relationships between religion and politics and geopolitics and bio politics in early socialist Mongolia, as well as the multitude of state actions that preceded state brutality. By examining the incidents and transformations that resulted in violence and by viewing violence as a process rather than an event, his work not only challenges existing theories of political violence, but also offers another approach to the anthropology of the state. In particular, it presents an alternative model to philosopher Georgio Agamben's theory of sovereignty and the state of exception. The Lama Question will be of interest to scholars and students of violence, the state, bio politics, Buddhism, and socialism, as well as to those interested in the history of Mongolia and Asia in general.

Journal of Asian Studies, 2007

This is a memoir of my Master's anthropological fieldwork (1970). It was written to be reflective... more This is a memoir of my Master's anthropological fieldwork (1970). It was written to be reflective of that time but also to be a means by which students (undergraduate and graduate) think about how to select their own careers.