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Darwin’s admiration for the egalitarianism of the tribes he encountered in Tierra del Fuego was diluted with dismay. He saw the Fuegians’ insistence on sharing to be an impediment to their becoming civilized:
"The perfect equality among the individuals composing the Fuegian tribes must for a long time retard their civilization. ... In Tierra del Fuego, until some chief shall arise with power sufficient to secure any acquired advantage, such as the domesticated animals, it seems scarcely possible that the political state of the country can be improved. ... It is difficult to understand how a chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which he might manifest his superiority and increase his power."[i]
Christopher Boehm has been studying power dynamics in foraging societies for more than four decades. Currently the director of the Jane Goodall Research Center and professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, he has conducted fieldwork with both human and nonhuman primates and published more than 60 scholarly articles and books on altruism. Boehm argues that “egalitarianism involves a very special type of hierarchy, a curious type that is based on anti-hierarchical feelings.” He explains, “if a stable egalitarian hierarchy is to be achieved, the basic flow of power in society must be reversed definitively” so that common people maintain the upper hand over those with ambitions that could upset the balance. Boehm notes that “it takes considerable effort to maintain that condition.”
Indeed it does. In our era, this ancient democratic impulse manifests in the idea of representative government. With apologies to the women of the world, what is the message of “one man, one vote” and “All men are created equal,” if not the articulation of this quintessentially anti-hierarchical disposition we’ve inherited from ancestors who refused to be told what to do?
[iii]. Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter X
