Group scaling required added hierarchy levels, with lower units cooperating to compete
Evidence
Human societies did not increase in scale simply by including more and more people. The scaling-up process was accomplished in a special way: increasing hierarchical complexity by adding levels of administrative control. At each step of the process, lower-level units had to cooperate with each other, so that together they could better compete against rival coalitions. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 475
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- XREF: Hierarchical layering as cooperation-for-competition directly parallels the reader’s partner-choice and solidarity framework — the fumi-e ritual works on this lower-level solidarity layer.
- QUESTION: How does the added administrative control layer itself stay cohesive? Norenzayan’s Big God mechanism may be what holds each new hierarchy level together.