Greed Unbound: Official Misdeeds In Political Economies of Kin Groups and Chiefdoms (Volume 1)

The first volume of Greed Unbound is about the ways elites siphoned off value from workers in the early Neolithic farming and herding societies. In the broadest terms, it highlights the consequences of greed in officialdom, the offices of kin groups, cults, secret societies, and chiefdoms. Greed in all of these groups has consistently led to severe inequality. Prior to the Agricultural Revolution inequality had been held in check, being restricted to such things as respect for the elderly and male chauvinism. In the mild inequality of the Long Paleolithic, no one person or faction could siphon value from the labor of others. But all that changed once food was stored in farming societies, allowing greedy chiefs to exploit the common people—in stark contrast to the egalitarian nature of life before the development of stored wealth. With the change, exploitation flourished, as did warfare and mystical institutions that functioned to mislead and appease the masses.