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Making and unmaking egalitarianism in small-scale human societies
1Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, United States.
Current Opinion in Psychology
|August 26, 2019
Summary
Human societies were historically egalitarian due to ecological and demographic factors that suppressed steep hierarchies. The advent of agriculture, however, weakened these constraints, allowing for increased coercion and dominance-based social structures.
Area of Science:
- Anthropology
- Sociology
- Human Evolution
Background:
- Human history is characterized by a long period in small-scale, egalitarian societies.
- These conditions favored prestige-based hierarchies over dominance-based ones.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the evolutionary and ecological factors shaping human social structures.
- To understand the transition from egalitarianism to hierarchical systems.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of anthropological and historical data on societal structures.
- Ecological and demographic modeling of early human populations.
Main Results:
- Small-scale societies with specific ecological and demographic conditions naturally suppressed steep, dominance-based hierarchies.
- Prestige-based hierarchies were incentivized in these environments.
- The spread of agriculture significantly altered these conditions, weakening constraints on coercion.
Conclusions:
- Human egalitarianism is a product of specific environmental and social conditions, not inherent nature.
- The development of agriculture was a pivotal factor in the rise of dominance-based hierarchies and increased coercion in human societies.
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