Chaos As Social Order

comprised of identical components with highly homogeneous behavior” (Dendrinos 240-1).  The only way in which a comparable homogeneity can be obtained in social science data is to quantify some aspect of social life such as divorce rates, voter choices, and incidences of disease.  Once specific quantities are obtained then simulations can be constructed which show characteristics of chaos.

            However, the simulations all posit arbitrary, artificial initial conditions which do not correspond to or represent the ongoingness, the historicity, or the livingness of the phenomena from which the quantitative data are extracted.  For example, in a presentation of his universal map for studying the dynamics of human settlement activity, Dendrinos points out that “a change in parameter values or initial conditions can result in a new frame, m, potentially characterized by a qualitatively different dynamic…” (253).  No doubt there is no end to the abstract possibilities in such a model.  Indeed, according to Dendrinos, “one of the weaknesses” in current uses of chaos theory for mathematical modeling in economics is “that under slight but proper modifications in specification, these models can reproduce almost anything that the analyst wishes to produce through theoretical deduction” (238)!

            But what constitutes the initial conditions of human settlement or even of human action in the first place?  Is an initial condition the fact that a shaman read a bird’s entrails and directed a group to settle in a certain cave?  Or was it the fact that the group had only two days of food left and winter was coming on?  Or was it the appearance of a familiar star in a strange area of the night sky?  Or was

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