1. How Inequality Evolved: Overcoming Reverse Dominance Hierarchies

2. The Myth of Forager Egalitarianism

• Myth: Forager societies lack hierarchy

• Reality: A few instances of inequality

• Gender Inequality: highly variable

• Private property: Pi on trees among Paiute

• Foragers: latent individual inequality

• Prevention: Watchful control by band and tribe

3. By 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

4. !Kung San Hunter

5. Why This Bizarre Behavior?

• Tomazos 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.

6. Lessons 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

7. Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: A Definition

• Primary Source: Boehms Hierarchy in the Forest

• Definition: a collective reaction to

• anyones 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

8. Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Toward 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

9. Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: Primate 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

10. Establishing Dominance Hierarchies: Threat Behavior

11. Reverse Dominant Hierarchy: Band/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

12. Ending Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: 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

13. Ending Dominance Hierarchies: War

• As resources dwindle

• And populations increases

• Warfare expands in scope

• And establish hierarchical societies

• And their states

14. Ending Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: 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.

15. Emergence 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

16. Contemporary Reverse Dominance Hierarchies

• Contemporary Examples

• Labor Unions: Danger of a Labor Aristocracy?

• Socialism: But who controls the bosses?

• Recuperaci n Movement in Argentina: But what will prevent corruption?

17. Industrial Reverse Dominance Hierarchies: 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.

18. Equality 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

19. From Forager to Domesticator: The Archaeological 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

20. Emergence 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

21. Establishment of Power over Resources

• 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

22. Institutionalized 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

23. Zinacantan: From Community to Local 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

24. Can Egalitarian Society Coexist with Complexity?

• Catalh yk: A large egalitarian town?

• The Inca: First socialist model?

• Contemporary South America: glimmerings of equal complex societies?