Ok, I'm probably going to regret this, but here I go anyhow. One of the markers of inequality is that some people live in fancier houses, have more stuff, have access to better food, etc. Here's a quote from a scientific article that Elle posted: "The skeletons of Mycenean royalty had better teeth and were three inches taller than their subjects. Chilean mummies from A.D. 1000 had a fourfold lower rate of bone lesions caused by disease than commoners.”
At Catalhuyuk, all the house are the same size and there are no public buildings. No courthouse, not even a temple. Just a bunch of cookie-cutter residences. Analysis of teeth and bones show that everyone ate the same, including women. No discrepancies as far as diet or access to nutrition. Beside all of the other indicators, we know that everyone is on equal footing because no-one has more or better stuff, no one has a bigger house or a palace, no one eats better. This is not a theory. It's very definitive proof of egalitarianism. Duh!
And what is all this alpha shit? Are you really one of those guys? 🙄 Did you read Elle's story about that? Oh right, you're the guy she tagged. Still, did you read it?
There are no human alphas. That would require one male leader and one female leader who are essentially put into that position by their peers for as long as they can maintain the necessary coalitions to hold it. That's the way it works in the animal kingdom. Even the President of the United States is not an alpha in the sense that this word applies in the non-human animal kingdom. It's a made up construct as far as humans go. Besides, the main function of an alpha male in the animal world is to care for and keep the peace within their community. There is prestige, but it's essentially a caretaker job, which has nothing to do with the made-up idea of what a human alpha male is in a patriarchal society context. Puhleeze, my estimation of you drops even further if you are one of those pitiful guys who clings to such an idea.
And I already told you, and as far as I can tell, Elle did too, about why Native North American tribes were not fully egalitarian in the same way that many other foragers are. Once sedentism comes to the area, it brings with it hierarchy, and that hierarchy is so destabilizing that it spreads. I know I read a comment about this already where Elle quoted to you expert testimony of this. I'm going to go find it.
"Counterintuitively, the fact that when inequality arose it was so destabilizing caused these patriarchal societies to spread by creating an incentive to migrate in search of further resources. "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024683
Here's a generic search of accepted information about modern foragers:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/bands/
"A band is a '…small, loosely organized [group] of people held together by informal means' (Gezen and Kottak 2014: 303). Its political organization is concerned with meeting basic needs for survival. Decision-making and leadership are focused on how best to meet those needs. Membership can be fluid. Power can be situational with leadership based on the skills and personality of an individual. Leaders do not have the power to enforce their will on the group; all members of the group, generally adults, contribute to the decision-making process. Because of this group decision-making process and the fact that everyone has access to the resources needed to survive, bands are egalitarian. Just like other members of the band, leaders are expected to contribute to the economic resources of the group. Authority is relegated within families, but due to the egalitarian nature of bands, even within families authority may not be strong."
Notice that so called "leaders" do not have the power to enforce their will on the group and that decision making is done by all of the adults. (There are no "alphas.") There's not even any real authority within the family unit because foragers are notoriously independent and self-deterministic. If that is the case today, in the 21st century, why wouldn't it have been the case in the past, when there is ample evidence that is was in fact how our ancient ancestors lived? You really don't have a leg to stand on, but I don't suppose that will prevent you from coming back with a bunch of BS about why none of this counts because you just know....
Again, I really do feel sorry for you that you are so wedded to this inevitability of hierarchy thing. I'm guessing you aren't an "alpha" in your own mind but would like to be one, which is what this is all really about. And once again, you've provided no actual evidence of anything that you've said, where I have (and Elle has). You say that researchers and scholars believe in "the theory" of alphas (I advise you to look that up and learn more about what a theory means). 😉 Meanwhile, we've got actual scientific scholarship and "Duh, anyone can see" evidence to prove our point. To say nothing of the schema of how actual animal alphas work. Seriously dude, you really got nothing.
And, if history is any indicator, that isn't going to stop you. Sigh....
