The Yin and Yang of Status

©2023 by Vernon Miles Kerr and VernonMilesKerr.com

As much as we modern humans decry status-seeking, and openly ridicule people, like the man above, flaunting his world’s most-famous, well-crafted, accurate, and expensive wristwatch, isn’t there a part of us, deep in our psyches, that envies him? Primatologists, like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey have described the place of status within a band of our closest relatives, the Great Apes. Others have described how status works in troops of lesser primates, like rhesus monkeys. Although the effects of status-stratification within a group of primates are often unpleasant, (for those of lesser status) that downside seems to be the price that’s required for the relative peace that clearly-demarcated rules of conduct engender. The chaos of a big gang-fight is avoided by occasional bickering over those layers of status.

One image that was striking to me, was a band of rhesus monkeys on a single branch huddling together to ward off the evening chill. Those of highest status enjoyed the warmth at the center of that line of perching monkeys. Those of lower status were relegated to the two ends of the line, and only received warmth on one side of their bodies. Ironically, those weakest and most infirm monkeys, the ones who could use more protection from the chill, were the ones being denied it because of low status.

Status in those studied groups seemed to be based on two factors: physical strenth and popularity. What is the basis of status in modern humans? Is it just wealth?