Emergence of persistent institutionalized inequality at the Bridge River site, British Columbia: the roles of managerial mutualism and coercion

Author:

Prentiss Anna Marie1ORCID,Foor Thomas A.1,Hampton Ashley1,Walsh Matthew J.2,Denis Megan1,Edwards Alysha1

Affiliation:

1. Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812 USA

2. Modern History and World Cultures Section, The National Museum of Denmark, Ny Vestergade 10 Prinsens Palæ, 1471 Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

Persistent institutionalized inequality (PII) emerged at the Bridge River site byca1200–1300 years ago. Research confirms that PII developed at a time of population packing associated with unstable fluctuations in a critical food resource (anadromous salmon) and persisted across multiple generations. While we understand the demographic and ecological conditions under which this history unfolded, we have yet to address details of the underlying social process. In this paper, we draw on Bridge River's Housepit 54 to examine two alternative hypotheses. Hypothesis 1, mutualism, suggests that household heads signalled to maintain and attract new members as a means of supporting the demographic viability of the house. Inequality is indicated by variation in prestige markers but less obviously in economic fundamentals. Hypothesis 2, coercion, asserts that the more successful households developed control over access to critical food resources, forcing others into the choice between emigration and subjugation. Inequality is indicated by inter-family differences in prestige markers and economic fundamentals. Results suggest that inequality emerged under a mutualism scenario but persisted for subsequent generations under more coercive conditions.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary ecology of inequality’.

Funder

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Science Foundation

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Cited by 3 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Surf & Turf: The role of intensification and surplus production in the development of social complexity in coastal vs terrestrial habitats;Journal of Anthropological Archaeology;2024-03

2. Emergence of persistent institutionalized inequality at the Bridge River site, British Columbia: the roles of managerial mutualism and coercion;Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences;2023-06-26

3. Toward an evolutionary ecology of (in)equality;Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences;2023-06-26

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