The social dynamics of settling down

For more than 150 years, global perspectives on the mobile to sedentary transition have been framed by deeply entrenched categorical assumptions that have effectively blinded archaeologists to the fundamental importance of interpersonal relationships. Combining multi-disciplinary studies of living groups with recent archaeological findings, we formulate a model that identifies regularities and divergences in the social interactions and institutions of small-scale, variably settled communities. We then confirm the model’s diachronic validity for a sample of archaeological cases that followed alternative pathways to greater residential permanence. When interactive densities surpassed critical demographic thresholds and fissioning did not occur, diverse interpersonal realignments ensued. Much of the variability evident across cases stemmed from the characteristics of key resources. When resources were heritable, but not monopolizable, new institutional arrangements and social adjustments tended to be collectively organized, but when they were both, the new organizational arrangements tended to be more inequitable with greater power differentials.