"War and Peas"

Why did humans develop hierarchies? Why couldn’t everyone stay equal to everyone else in the group? Brian Klass looks into the commonly accepted theories on the topic in his book, Corruptible.

 

The first theory is the one most of us are familiar with. Once humans discovered agriculture, they began to have surpluses. By definition, some people had more surplus than others – inequality had gotten started. Further, agricultural surpluses in turn required storage systems, accounting systems (to maintain records of who had how much excess), and protection systems (to protect the surplus) all of which led to specialists in different roles – hierarchies had begun. Klass calls this the “peas theory” (pun intended) – it all began with agriculture.

 

The other theory is more nuanced. Assume two groups of hunter-gatherers. One lived in the Amazon basin where food was plentiful in all directions. If someone forced you off your land, no big deal – you just moved somewhere else and food was plentiful there too. The other group lived in, say, coastal Peru “where your back is to the sea”. If an enemy group defeated you, there was “nowhere else to go”. Either you got killed or more likely got subsumed into the victorious group, either as slaves or as part of the empire that paid tribute. The victorious group thus got larger and larger:

“Coastal Peru became home to a series of complex societies, culminating in the Incan Empire – an empire defined by hierarchy.”

Klass calls this the “war theory” on the origin of hierarchy and inequality.

 

As Klass says:

“Our world is too complex for one unifying theory that explains everything.”

And so, both “war and peas” theories probably played their part in the rise of hierarchies and inequalities.