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type: dataset homepage: https://seshatdatabank.info tags:

  • topic-history
  • data-on-github
  • license-nc
  • license-confused

Seshat: Global History Databank

Seshat is a historical database that collects what is currently known about the social and political organization of human societies over time. Founded in 2011.

🔗 https://seshat-db.com

Related info site: https://seshatdatabank.info

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Data

Data is available for download 🎉 but not openly licensed (NC restriction) 😬

Have cached copies of files in data folder.

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Equinox

Equinox is consolidated database with a snapshot of everything they have (roughly)

Equinox file is downloadable from zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6642229 and also on github 🎉 https://github.com/seshatdb/Equinox_Data

Second, we periodically publish “snapshots” of the Seshat Databank for well-curated variables and polities. The current such data release is Equinox-2020, which presents data in both browsable format and through a spreadsheet. Whereas the spreadsheet contains data in computer-readable form suitable for statistical analyses, Seshat Data Browser also includes narrative paragraphs, explaining the codes, as well as references. Equinox-2020 is forward looking and brings together all data upon which the next series of forthcoming publications is based. This approach allows our collaborators and other domain experts to browse our data and suggest improvements.

Social Complexity Dataset

Download the Social Complexity dataset here

Please include the following text in any publication using these data: 

This research employed data from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info) under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) licensing.

And cite: 

  • Turchin, P., R. Brennan, T. E. Currie, K. Feeney, P. François, […] H. Whitehouse. 2015. “Seshat: The Global History Databank.” Cliodynamics 6(1): 77–107. https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio6127917.
  • Turchin, P., T. E. Currie, H. Whitehouse, P. François, K. Feeney,  […] C. Spencer. 2017. “Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization.” PNAS. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/12/20/1708800115.full.

Agricultural Productivity Dataset

Download the Agri dataset here

Please include the following text in any publication using these data: 

This research employed data from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info) under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) licensing.

And cite: 

  • Turchin, P., R. Brennan, T. E. Currie, K. Feeney, P. François, […] H. Whitehouse. 2015. “Seshat: The Global History Databank.” Cliodynamics 6(1): 77–107. https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio6127917.
  • Turchin, Peter, Thomas Currie, Christina Collins, Jill Levine, Oluwole Oyebamiji, Neil R. Edwards, Philip B. Holden, et al. “An Integrative Approach to Estimating Productivity in Past Societies Using Seshat: Global History Databank:” The Holocene 31, no. 6 (2021): 1055–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683621994644. 

Axial Age Dataset

Download the Axial Age dataset here

Please include the following text in any publication using these data: 

This research employed data from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info) under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) licensing.

And cite: 

  • Turchin, P., R. Brennan, T. E. Currie, K. Feeney, P. François, […] H. Whitehouse. 2015. “Seshat: The Global History Databank.” Cliodynamics 6(1): 77–107. https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio6127917.
  • Mullins, D., D. Hoyer, […] P. Turchin. Preprint. “Mullins, D., D. Hoyer, […] P. Turchin. 2018. “A Systematic Assessment of ‘Axial Age’ Proposals Using Global Comparative Historical Evidence.” American Sociological Review 83(3): 596–626. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418772567.

Moralizing Religion Dataset

Download the Moralizing Religion dataset here

Download the Moralizing Religion 'Retake'  dataset here

     *Archived versions of our moralizing religion data are available by request. 

Please include the following text in any publication using these data: 

This research employed data from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info) under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) licensing.

And cite: 

  • Turchin, P., R. Brennan, T. E. Currie, K. Feeney, P. François, […] H. Whitehouse. 2015. “Seshat: The Global History Databank.” Cliodynamics 6(1): 77–107. https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio6127917.
  • Turchin, P., H. Whitehouse, J. Larson, et al. 2022. “Explaining the Rise of Moralizing Religions: A Test of Competing Hypotheses Using the Seshat Databank.” Religion Brain & Behavior. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065345.
  • Whitehouse et al. 2022. “Testing the Big Gods hypothesis with global historical data: a review and “retake”.” Religion Brain & Behavior. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2022.2074085

Consequences of Crisis Dataset

Download the Consequences of Crisis dataset here

Please include the following text in any publication using these data: 

This research employed data from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info) under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) licensing.

And cite: 

  • Turchin, P., R. Brennan, T. E. Currie, K. Feeney, P. François, […] H. Whitehouse. 2015. “Seshat: The Global History Databank.” Cliodynamics 6(1): 77–107. https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio6127917.
  • Hoyer, Daniel, James S Bennett, Samantha Holder, Robert Howard, Jill Levine, Peter Turchin, Jenny Reddish, Majid Benam, Francis Ludlow, and Gary M Feinman. (Forthcoming). “Navigating Polycrisis: Long-Run Socio-Cultural Factors Shape Response to Changing Climate.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Special Issue: Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture, edited by Anne C Pisor, J. Stephen Lansing, and Kate Magargal.. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0402.

License

CC-BY-NC-SA

Evidence from https://seshat-db.com/downloads_page/ (2024-06-30)

This research employed data from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info) under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) licensing. The Equinox dataset is an openly accessible file stored on Zenodo under the doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6642229.

NB: irony that they refer to a bunch of their datasets as open access but these are NC.

Confused licensing

Weirdly the Github version of the SeshatDB data https://github.com/seshatdb/Equinox_Data has a CC Zero in LICENSE file but about info on Github page states otherwise …

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