Intergenerational Wealth Transmission and the Dynamics of Inequality in Small-Scale Societies

TLDR

Small‑scale societies span from egalitarian foraging bands to stratified agrarian and pastoral societies, with differences in livelihood technology and institutional norms shaping inequality patterns. The study explains inequality variation with a dynamic model linking long‑run inequality to intergenerational wealth transmission. The authors estimate intergenerational transmission of material, embodied, and relational wealth and measure inequality across 21 populations. They find substantial wealth transmission and inequality in pastoral and small‑scale agricultural societies, comparable to or exceeding the most unequal modern industrial economies, while horticultural and foraging peoples exhibit limited transmission and egalitarian inequality levels.

Abstract

Small-scale human societies range from foraging bands with a strong egalitarian ethos to more economically stratified agrarian and pastoral societies. We explain this variation in inequality using a dynamic model in which a population's long-run steady-state level of inequality depends on the extent to which its most important forms of wealth are transmitted within families across generations. We estimate the degree of intergenerational transmission of three different types of wealth (material, embodied, and relational), as well as the extent of wealth inequality in 21 historical and contemporary populations. We show that intergenerational transmission of wealth and wealth inequality are substantial among pastoral and small-scale agricultural societies (on a par with or even exceeding the most unequal modern industrial economies) but are limited among horticultural and foraging peoples (equivalent to the most egalitarian of modern industrial populations). Differences in the technology by which a people derive their livelihood and in the institutions and norms making up the economic system jointly contribute to this pattern.