pt. 1. Starting out equal
Rousseau's "state of nature"
Why our ancestors had religion and the arts
Inequality without agriculture
pt. 2. Balancing prestige and equality
Agriculture and achieved renown
The ritual buildings of achievement-based societies
The prehistory of the ritual house
Prestige and equality in four Native American societies
pt. 3. Societies that made inequality hereditary
The rise and fall of hereditary inequality in farming societies
Three sources of power in chiefly societies
From ritual house to temple in the Americas
Aristocracy without chiefs
Temples and inequality in early Mesopotamia
The chiefly societies in our backyard
How to turn rank into stratification : tales of the South Pacific
pt. 4. Inequality in kingdoms and empires
Three of the New World's first-generation kingdoms
The land of the scorpion king
Black ox hides and golden stools
The nursery of civilization
How new empires learn from old
pt. 5. Resisting inequality
Inequality and natural law.
