Status-seeking predates capitalism and exists in stateless societies
Evidence
Aspirations today may no longer be expressed in a particular brand of cigarettes, but for both the privileged and the underprivileged, there is a nearly universal desire to secure a comfortable social position. In status hierarchies where individuals can improve their position over time, most would prefer to be elevated. “Even if all actors received the same salary,” writes the philosopher Bertrand Russell, “a man would rather act the part of Hamlet than that of the First Sailor.” Status seeking is obvious among insufferable snobs, petty civil servants, and Porsche-driving hedge fund managers, but neither capitalism nor complex bureaucracies are necessary to stoke such ambitions. In the New Guinea highlands, where sea snail shells served as currency and men competed in the accumulation of livestock, powerful “Big Men” openly acknowledged that status symbols ruled everything around them. For one: “All I care for in my life are my pigs, my wives, my shell money and my sweet potatoes.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 60
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Seeking status is a fundamental human desire that never reaches satiation — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 22; Status seeking acts as an invisible hand generating culture — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 25; Stateless societies reveal forgotten patterns of human interdependence — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2403 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Stateless societies reveal forgotten patterns of human interdependence
#expands(0.78) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2403 - Low-status individuals seek local status in splinter groups while still competing globally
#expands(0.74) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 305 - Neoliberal capitalism underlies how social media organize social status
#exemplifies(0.74) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 20 - Individual status seeking produces the patterned commonalities called culture
#expands(0.73) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 300 - Status seeking acts as an invisible hand generating culture
#qualifies(0.72) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 25