Modeling Leadership and Resource Flow in the Village Computer Simulation
VEP researchers have recently begun exploring the impacts of leadership and resource flow in the ancient Southwest using the Village simulation. This video shows the growth of simulated household groups through time, as well as the amount of resource flow between the groups. The background is elevation data from across the VEP North study area. As populations grow larger on this simulated landscape, groups tend to become more hierarchical (the blue dots) as it becomes more beneficial to share the burden of monitoring public resources, such as reservoirs. Red dots are groups that do not transition to being hierarchical.

As you watch, you’ll see the dots get larger as the population in each group grows. Once groups become large enough, they begin competing for resources, sometimes coercing each other to transfer resources, like tribute or a tax. Arrows indicate the flow of resources between groups—the arrow points to the dominant group, which receives resources from the subservient group. The thickness of the arrow corresponds to the amount of tribute a group is giving to its dominant group. VEP researchers analyze the output of simulations like these in order to learn things about ancestral Pueblo social systems. Population growth has a substantial impact on the structure and composition of groups and on the amount of competition for resources on the landscape.

Simulation vidoe by R. Kyle Bocinsky

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