| Abstract: | The article focusses on two questions. One is the conditions under which one might expect to find community level egalitarian ideology in complex societies. The other is a more specific concern with the occurrence of egalitarian ideology among contemporary small scale hunting and gathering societies. A common lower class situation is critical when this translates into community acceptance of the overriding legitimacy of equalisation of status within the community. Also important is the location of the community in opposition to the wider society which it sees as external, threatening, dominating and intrusive. |
