Modeling Polity Emergence Using Patron-Client, Bargaining, and Reproductive Skew

The control of water and the performance of water rituals during seasonal drought were a key factor in the emergence of political power and stability in the Southern Maya Lowlands.  We synthesize the patron-client model from political science, bargaining models from economics, and reproductive skew models from evolutionary ecology to further understand the mechanisms that may have driven polity emergence and stability.  From our synthesis emerge three variables that can influence bargaining outcomes in the short term, and thus determine the distribution of economic surplus among social partners: the behavioral alternatives to social partnership available to agents, the importance agents place on future payoffs, and average relatedness between social partners.