Previous: Seeing Fairness Evolve Brian Hayden's phrase at the end of the last video—"the judgment of fairness"—captures an important implication of his theory. Whereas the norms of fairness among hunter-gatherers are common to all members of the group, in transegalitarian societies fairness is essentially an agreement among a sufficient number of the wealthy and well-connected, who are able to enforce their version of fairness on the society as a whole. If Brian's theory is correct, the process is a slippery slope. What begins as favoritism within a small circle of friends ... Read More

Previous: Two Paths to Inequality Under the title "Big Man, Big Heart?", Brian Hayden published the results of the study with co-author Rob Gargett in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica. They state the central question in the introduction: "The question of how socioeconomic inequality develops has been problematical in large measure because it is difficult to imagine conditions under which the majority of any community would give up communal access to important resources, not to mention control over decisions that affect their own lives… A major division exists among scholars dealing with ... Read More

Previous: The Pit House People began using the Keatley Creek site during the Middle Prehistoric, from about 5000 to 2800 B.C.E. They probably built shelters throughout that period, but the first clear evidence of pit houses is found after 2800 B.C.E. The height of the village's development took place between 400 B.C.E and 1000 C.E. After that, the population dwindled. There is evidence of a major landslide on the river below Lillooet that may have blocked salmon migration around that time, possibly for decades. Keatley Creek proved to be an ideal location for Brian Hayden to pursue his ... Read More

Previous: Fishing Rocks Our knowledge of early lifestyles comes from a combination of archaeological evidence and ethnographic studies of stone age cultures that have survived into modern times. Using these techniques we can infer what happened when people first entered the Fraser Canyon thousands of years ago, soon after the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreated from the British Columbia interior. It's likely that salmon had already re-established their runs in the Fraser. As people discovered the fishing rocks and the bounty that could be harvested each year, when, and why, did the changes in ... Read More

Previous: The Evolution of Fairness A little north of Lillooet the Fraser River narrows, forming a series of rapids that run between rocky shelves. Below each shelf is a quiet eddy, where the salmon rest before attempting to leap upstream. These shelves are known as fishing rocks, where the migrating fish can be efficiently harvested with dip nets, a simple technology that has changed little over thousands of years. The highly productive fishery found in this stretch of the canyon became the center of the ancient Lillooet culture. There are 22 fishing rocks along that stretch of the ... Read More