Origins of Social Stratification
Learn how human societies transitioned from egalitarian bands to hierarchical civilizations — and why inequality became a defining feature of settled life.
For the vast majority of human history, societies were relatively egalitarian. Hunter-gatherer bands actively resisted the concentration of power, using social mechanisms — ridicule, ostracism, even violence — to prevent any individual from dominating others. The emergence of social stratification — the division of society into unequal layers of status, wealth, and power — was a radical departure from this deep human pattern.
The transition happened gradually, accelerated by agriculture and settlement. Food surpluses could be accumulated and controlled. Land became a fixed resource that could be owned and inherited. Some families accumulated more than others, and over generations these advantages compounded. Religious leaders who claimed special access to the divine could leverage spiritual authority into political power. Warriors who defended the community could demand tribute in return.
By the time the first city-states emerged in Mesopotamia, stratification was firmly established: kings and priests at the top, merchants and artisans in the middle, laborers and slaves at the bottom. This hierarchy, which would have appalled a Paleolithic forager, became the default template for virtually every complex society that followed. Understanding how and why it emerged remains one of the central questions of human history.