Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

This article is a spin off of our book project, "Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy." Using hunter-gatherer societies as a focus, we argue for a heuristic continuum of egalitarian social systems ranging between relatively strong and weak forms. Weak egalitarianism is characterized by an absence of real political hierarchy, and limited differences between individuals in terms of rank, status, wealth, or power, while strongly egalitarian societies are characterized by these with some combination of powerful sharing and leveling norms, assertive social mechanisms of norm enforcement, extensive formal networks of reciprocity spanning geographical regions, and ritual practices designed to alleviate …