Phylogenetic methods of evolutionary biology can be used to study socio-political variation mapped onto linguistic trees. The range of political complexities in Austronesian societies offers a good test case. See Article p.801
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Diamond, J. Political evolution. Nature 467, 798–799 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/467798a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/467798a
