• Dominance hierarchies are really hierarchies of extended families within families where old dominate young, male females: the extent varies. Family status is very stable at least in primates. Japanese macacaques are at 200 years without any families. Family membership is matrilineal, females stay withing familes and virtually all reproduce, males usually expelled some rise to top, 90% go to fringe and never return: pair bonding primates are different, new world primates, gibbons, human beings?
• Primate heritage (note man is only obligatory polyphage, rest are vegetarians). Primate dominance hierarchies are based on status and adult males are eventually knocked off when they can't hack it. Becoming alpha depends on acceptance of group but not friendship. Friendship is of very limited importance and foodwise it is everyone for themselves, once kids are more than a couple months old. Mothers will even take food out of kids mouths. Vegetarian lifestyle limits need for cooperation. See chimps hunting baboon babies and how that works.
• Canine lifestyle. Group hunting and teamwork. Friendship is key cooperation, status depends more on the submission of the subordinates than the ability of dominant to enforce status. Can take a whole pack to raise a litter/mom and daughters, brothers. Status is largely determined within a litter with virtually whole range within one litter. Lineage is less important, groups smaller.
• The human style.
  • A. Obligatory sharing food among males and females
  • B. Specilization of labor, men hunt big game, women gather nuts and berries
  • C. Speech culture and all that
  • D. Pair bonding within exteded family/flexible
• Relevance to contemporary living
  • A. Status is sexy
  • B. Taller is more likely to lead
  • C. Successful leaders look like alpha monkeys - you can tell behaviors are similar
  • D. being successful produces morphology of success and behavior to match
• What happens with the industrial revolution and the invention of bureaucracy - men stay in bureaucracies and compete; women move out and start own businesses based on affinity networks

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