Hierarchy In the Forest

Having now read the review of "Demonic Males" more carefully, I can again
recommend "Hierarchy In the Forest" by Boehm.

He makes a sophisticated argument about human politics and inequality
based comparative analysis using data from a) observations of chimps
and other great apes, and b) surveying ethnographic data on hunting &
gathering societies.

In a nutshell, he argues that there is an innate human tendency toward
hierarchy, domination by alpha males, (as is the case with all the
other great apes, but is even more pronounced in modern human societies),
but that there is also a counter-tendency, most clearly exhibited in all
hunting & gathering societies, toward egalitarianism.  He characterizes
the countertendency as an *ethos,* a moral norm.  Its prevalence is one
piece of good news as far as the possibility of egalitarianism.  (Speaking
of chimps, Boehm presents a fascinating account of chimp coalitions, and
makes a plausible case that humans and chimps are more alike than
different as compared to gorillas.)

The final piece of his argument is based on group selection.  Rather
amazing if you know anything about modern biological theory, because group
selection was decisively rejected in the 60s, replaced by a strict,
parsimonious theory of individual-level selection.  Boehm argues that the
long period of hunting & gathering society presented precisely the
conditions for group selection to operate.  If groups that enforced the
egalitarian ethos survived at a higher rate than despotic groups, then
egalitianism could have been selected for at the group level.

So this is another piece of good news -- our (relatively) recent
evolutionary past may have modified the underlying hierarchical tendency
with an increased egalitarian disposition.  

Whether you agree with all of it or not, it is, in my opinion, an
excellent piece of research, and a high-level theoretical
exercise.  (Enough to give one hope that anthropology hasn't yet been
totally overrun by postmodernists.)  It ought to become THE baseline for
discussion, debate, and future research on these critical questions.

RH