“Fiercely Egalitarian”: Thematic Cross-Cultural Analysis Reveals Regularities in the Maintenance of Egalitarianism Across Four Independent African Hunter-Gatherer Groups

Abstract

Globally, there are large disparities in wealth and political decision making power. By contrast, several African hunter-gatherer groups are considered exemplars of material and political egalitarianism. Whilst extant literature has revealed egalitarian maintenance mechanisms specific to individual communities, systematic cross-cultural analysis has been lacking. To better understand how egalitarianism is maintained, such ethnographic comparison would enable identification of shared and distinct processes among diverse egalitarian societies. Utilizing the eHRAF World Cultures database, we conducted a thematic analysis of 666 observations across four African hunter-gatherer groups. This study reveals six mechanisms relevant to maintaining egalitarianism: residential mobility, opportunity to acquire resources/information, widespread resource sharing/transfer, non-coercive and informal leadership, consensus-based decision making/dispute resolution, and social norm reinforcement. While these core mechanisms were actively maintained, the degree to which they were applied varied between groups. The greatest disparity was observed between the three more ‘immediate-return’ groups and the one more ‘delayed-return’ group, the latter utilising fewer levelling mechanisms. In all three more immediate-return groups, individuals formed morally unified coalitions to collaboratively suppress hierarchical behaviour. We also identify nuanced differences among the more immediate-return groups, chiefly in the balance between promoting individual autonomy and emphasising social connectedness. Examining hunter-gatherer egalitarianism from a cross-cultural perspective thus illuminates how greater equality is maintained, particularly through the dual processes of personal autonomy-seeking and coordinated collective action.