Erdal D, Whiten A. Egalitarianism and Machiavellian Intelligence in Human Evolution. In: Mellars P, Gibson K, ed. Modelling the Early Human Mind. Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 1996: 139-160. McDonald Institute Monograph

This important synthesis points out that humans as a species, evolved to be egalitarian, and not hierarchical. It reviews data on hunger-gatherer societies and concludes that the norm was an absence of social hierarchy, and a sharing of resources that goes beyond kinship or reciprocation. This suggests that greed, which many believe typifies the human species, may be a result of changes over a relatively brief period of human existence, and perhaps began with the development of agriculture which allowed some of live off the labor of others.

Abstract

Archaeological evidence for an ancestral human hunting niche means that living hunter-gatherers offer important behavioural data for modelling the early human mind. Following the principles of strategic evolutionary modelling, 24 detailed hunter-gatherer ethnographies form four continents were examined for universal behaviour patterns likely to reflect fundamental adaptation to this human niche. Egalitarian behaviour is one of the most clearly documented universals, consistent with Knauft's suggestion that human evolution can be described by a U-shaped curve in which non-egalitarian ape societies gave way to hunter-gatherer egalitarianism, to be replaced in turn by social inequalities as settlement and resource surpluses became more recently established. More than100 particular observations further document the unique nature of human hunter-gatherer egalitarianism, demonstrating an absence of social hierarchy and sharing of resources which goes beyond the explanatory power of either kinship or reciprocation. Individuals do sometimes attempt to obtain a disproportionate share of resources or influence for themselves, but his is contained through vigilance and counter-dominant behaviour by their group members. We propose a model of human social evolution in which ancestral apes' Machiavellian tactics spiraled close to, but were intrinsically unable to settle at, a ceiling at which egalitarianism becomes the only viable strategy.

Keywords

hierarchy, egalitarian, greed, social hierarchy, hunter-gatherer, sharing, Machiavellian