How the Danes Do It

A new study of 21 modern small-scale societies around the world, however, finds a clear pattern in income disparities: How much inequality there is in a society depends on how inheritable the wealth is, which in turn depends on the kind of wealth that it is, says economist Samuel Bowles, director of the behavioral sciences program at the Santa Fe Institute and one of the study's lead authors. Specifically, parents in crop farming and herding economies tend to value and create material wealth (such as land, cows, and money) , which they then pass on to their offspring. Over time, this inherited wealth accumulates in certain households, widening the gaps between the haves and have-nots. I contrast, parents in subsistence farming and huntinggathering economies tend to rely on and generate other kinds of capital, including embodied wealth (like height, strength, and skills) and relational might (such as social alliances and connections to powerful people). Because these riches are harder to hand off to children, horticulturalists and huntergatherers have more egalitarian societies.