How Inequality Evolved:How Inequality Evolved:

Overcoming Reverse Dominance Overcoming Reverse Dominance HierarchiesHierarchies

The Myth of Forager EgalitarianismThe Myth of Forager Egalitarianism

• Myth: Forager societies lack hierarchy

• Reality: A few instances of inequality

• Gender Inequality: highly variable

• Private property: Piňon trees among Paiute

• Foragers: latent individual inequality

• Prevention: Watchful control by band and tribe

By Way of Introduction: Case StudyBy Way of Introduction: Case Study

• “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” by Richard Lee

• Lee conducted an ethnographic study of the Dobe !Kung during year

• He gave the band a fattened ox to thank them

• Reaction: Dobe ridiculed this gift• Lesson: the !Kung typically ridicule all

unusually valuable game

!Kung San Hunter!Kung San Hunter

Why This Bizarre Behavior?Why This Bizarre Behavior?

• Tomazo’s answer: “Arrogance.”• “When a young man kills much meat,• he thinks himself as a chief or big man• and the rest of us as his servants.• We cannot accept this. • Someday his pride will make him kill somebody.• So we always speak of his meat as worthless.• That way, we cool his heart and make him

gentle.”

Lessons from This TaleLessons from This Tale

• Even bandsmen know about inequality

• They fear domination by one man

• Unusual gifts always involve some ulterior motive

• So they denigrate this gifts

• The reaction conforms to a model of reverse dominance hierarchy

Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: A Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: A DefinitionDefinition

• Primary Source: Boehm’s Hierarchy in the Forest

• Definition: a collective reaction to

• anyone’s attempt to dominate his fellows• Summary: “All men seek to rule• but if they cannot rule• they seek to be equal.” • —Harold Schneider, Economic Anthropologist

Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Toward a ModelToward a Model

• Primary Source: Knauft: “Sociality versus Self-Interest in Human Evolution” Behavior and Brain Sciences.

• Knauft postulates a U-Shaped Curve:• Nonhuman Primates: Moderate to

Extreme Dominance• Bands and Tribes: Strong Egalitarianism• Chiefdoms and States: Ranking to Social

Stratification

Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Primate Ethological EvidencePrimate Ethological Evidence

• Rationale: Pongid-Hominid Divergence 6 m.y.a.

• Dominance Evident in Hominoids• Chimpanzees: Coalition Politics• Bonobos: Female Hierarchies Passed to Sons• Male Linear Dominance is tempered by:• Behavioral Ambivalence (waa vocalization)• Coalitions of Subordinate Individuals

Establishing Dominance Establishing Dominance Hierarchies: Threat BehaviorHierarchies: Threat Behavior

Reverse Dominant Hierarchy: Reverse Dominant Hierarchy: Band/Tribal EgalitarianismBand/Tribal Egalitarianism

• Most Models: Effortless Egalitarianism• Reverse Dominance: You Have to Work at It• “Upstart” Individuals Try to Dominate the

Band/Tribe• Coalitions Suppress Every Such Attempt• Ridicule (!Kung “Insulting the Meat”)• Song Duels (Inuit/Eskimo)• Extreme Case: Homicide by Group-Selected

Executioner

Ending Reverse Dominance Ending Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Food SurplusHierarchy: Food Surplus

• Bases of Food Surplus• Complex Foraging: Northwest Coast Indians• Advanced Pastoralists: Mongol Nomads• Neolithic Revolution• Intensive Cultivation• Nonfarm Specialization in• Crafts and Manufactures• Administration and Enforcement• Rise of an Elite

Ending Dominance Hierarchies: Ending Dominance Hierarchies: WarWar

• As resources dwindle• And populations

increases• Warfare expands in

scope• And establish

hierarchical societies• And their states

Ending Reverse Dominance Ending Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Population DensityHierarchy: Population Density

• Populations increase

• Beyond scope of kin-based control

• New control mechanism come into place

• Extra-Familial groups take control

• Anti-hierarchical mechanisms lose effectiveness

• Circumscription ensures control.

Emergence of StratificationEmergence of Stratification

• Manipulative Individuals/Families• Form alliances (chimpanzee-like)• Play one faction against another• Form dynasties (bonobo-like)• Control over Life-Sustaining Resources• Water systems in semi-arid regions• Agricultural lands• Mechanisms of Taxation• Labor• Tribute

Contemporary Reverse Dominance Contemporary Reverse Dominance HierarchiesHierarchies

• Contemporary Examples

• Labor Unions: Danger of a Labor Aristocracy?

• Socialism: But who controls the bosses?

• Recuperación Movement in Argentina: But what will prevent corruption?

Industrial Reverse Dominance Industrial Reverse Dominance Hierarchies: RequirementsHierarchies: Requirements

• Large-Scale Control Mechanisms

• Anti-Corruption Mechanisms

• Institutions Independent of Personalistic Qualities (Cult of Personality)

• Policies for the Greatest Happiness For All

• Assurance of Human and Civil Rights for all.

Equality to Inequality: MontenegroEquality to Inequality: Montenegro

• Montenegrins maintained tribal structure

• Uniting only to repel Ottoman forays

• Structure assured equality

• A marriage alliance sealed dominance by one tribe over the others

From Forager to Domesticator: The From Forager to Domesticator: The Archaeological RecordArchaeological Record

• Sufficient Condition: Food Surplus

• Complex Foraging Enabled Settled Communities

• Plant and Animal Domestication Forced by Population Excess of Carrying Capacity

• Tribal Society Still Egalitarian

• Based on Reverse Dominance

• Example: Big Man Model of New Guinea

Emergence of ComplexityEmergence of Complexity

• Projects emerged requiring extra-familial cooperation, such as a state

• Example: Dams, canals, other waterworks

• Example: Defensive walls when at war

• Example: Exploitation of mines or quarries

• Other projects might justify maintenance of new formation

Establishment of Power over Establishment of Power over ResourcesResources

• Control over Life-Sustaining Resources• Example: Water works in arid regions• Example: Granaries• Example: Trade in essential goods• Emergence of Hereditary

Chiefs/Chiefdoms• Formation of chief and subchief hierarchy• Expansion of territory

Institutionalized Social StratificationInstitutionalized Social Stratification

• Control of Food Surpluses and Food Sources• Large, Dense Populations• Formal Government• Monopoly over Legal Force• Bureaucracy• Codified Law• Division of Labor and Trade• Record Keeping• Monumental Architecture

Zinacantan: From Community to Zinacantan: From Community to Local StratificationLocal Stratification

• A Closed Corporate Community• Cargo System• Communal Resource and Surplus Control’• Other Attributes of Community Solidarity• An Entrepreneurial Revolution• Decline of the Cargo System• Global Influences on Community• Fragmentation into hamlets

Can Egalitarian Society Coexist Can Egalitarian Society Coexist with Complexity?with Complexity?

• Catalhöyük: A large egalitarian town?

• The Inca: First socialist model?

• Contemporary South America: glimmerings of equal complex societies?