Preface
Part I. Starring Out Equal
1. Genesis and Exodus
2. Rousseau s State of Nature
3. Ancestors and Enemies
4. Why Our Ancestors Had Religion and the Arts
5. Inequality without Agriculture
Part II. Balancing Prestige and Equality
6. Agriculture and Achieved Renown
7. The Ritual Buildings of Achievement-Based Societies
8. The Prehistory of the Ritual House
9. Prestige and Equality in Four Native American Societies
Part III. Societies That Made Inequality Hereditary
10. The Rise and Fall of Hereditary Inequality in Farming Societies
11. Three Sources of Power in Chiefly Societies
12. From Ritual House to Temple in the Americas
13. Aristocracy without Chiefs
14. Temples and Inequality in Early Mesopotamia
15. The Chiefly Societies in Our Backyard
16. How to Turn Rank into Stratification: Tales of the South Pacific
Part IV. Inequality in Kingdoms and Empires
17. How to Create a Kingdom
18. Three of die New Worlds First-Generation Kingdoms
19. The Land of die Scorpion King
20. Black Ox Hides and Golden Stools
21. The Nursery of Civilization
22. Graft and Imperialism
23. How New Empires Learn from Old
Part V. Resisting Inequality
24. Inequality and Natural Law
Notes
Sources of Illustrations
Index.