The Ecological-Evolutionary Typology of Human Societies and the Evolution of Social Inequality

Gerhard Lenski's ecological-evolutionary typology of human societies, based on the level of technology of a society and the nature of its physical environment, is a powerful predictor of various dimensions of social inequality. Analysis of comparative data shows that while some dimensions of the stratification system (such as measures of social complexity) exhibit a monotonic trend of increasing inequality with level of technology from the hunting-and-gathering to the agrarian type, others (such as measures of freedom and sexual inequality among males) exhibit a pattern of 'agrarian reversal' in which inequality increases from the hunting-and-gathering to the advanced horticultural type but then declines with the agrarian type. Theoretical and empirical implications of the agrarian reversal pattern for the study of social inequality are discussed. I am grateful to Bernice McNair Barnett and Gehard Lenski for comments and to Patrick Nolan for advice on coding societal type

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Biology · Inequality · Social inequality · Social science · Social stratification · Sociology · Typology · Anthropology · Cultural Differences and Values · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Ecology

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