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Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History Laura L. Betzig New York: Aldine Publishing Company, 1986

Precis. The theoretical basis of this book proceeds from a simple proposition: "If men and women are products of natural selection, then the evolved end of their existence should be essentially, very simply, the production of children, grandchildren, and other nondescendant kinsmen" (p. 2). On a societal level, it is proposed that "[p]ower, prestige, and privileged access to resources should be sought, not as ends in themselves, but as prerequisites to procreation" (p. 2). Since despotism maximizes these resources for the despot, then it follows that "[d]espotism should be expected to coincide with differential reproduction" (p. 3). In this book. the author seeks to "determine how often power has been used to the end of reproduction ... throughout the course of history and before" (p. 4). The book begins with a discussion of Darwinian theory from which the author derives her major hypothesis: "Hierarchical power should predict a biased outcome in conflict resolution, which should in turn predict size of the winner's harem ... " (p. 9). The hypothesis is tested using data on hierarchy, despotism, and polygyny gathered from a representative sample of 104 of the world's societies drawn from the cross-cultural sample assembled by Murdock and White (detailed information is given in two appendices). The second chapter considers the implications of the fact that in all societies there is a difference in the nature and extent to which men reproduce in light of the way in which conflicts of interest are handled. The third chapter consists of a series of case studies of despotism, coming to the conclusion that men with great power do tend to exploit it. Betzig then discusses various theories of conflict resolution, concentrating most attention on that of Marx. The fourth chapter considers differential reproduction, discussing the question: "To what extent has despotism coincided with differential reproduction?" (p. 69) The focus here is on harems and claustration. Chapter 5 adds statistical analysis to the discussion and concludes that the overall evidence strongly supports "the Darwinian hypothesis that individuals will exploit their positions of strength in resolving conflicts in their own interest, and that ultimately they will seek reproductive rewards" (p. 97). The final Chapter, entitled "Democracy" addresses the question: "Why does the prediction fail to hold up in modern goups?" In it, Betzig explores the question of why people stay in despotic groups or societies. She finds that at some point the hierarchical organization grows so complex that the arrangement becomes less viable, with the result that despotism and differential reproduction begin to wane. Based on this, she speculates that complexity necessitates weighing of immediate reproductive advantage against long-term reproductive gain. Thus, as "industrialization has given rise to specialization, it may also have brought on reproductive concessions" (p. 105), since technical specialists may have become as important as successful warriors. Thus, bargaining power may increase with scarcity in the number of people qualified to do any necessary task.