Four relational models

An interesting model.  From Fiske's Relational Models by Arnold Kling.  The subheading is communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, market pricing.  

Anthropologist Alan Fiske claimed that there are four ways that humans deal with resources. I think of the resources as physical resources, but you might think of them as intangibles, such as status. The four models are communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing.

Around the family dinner table, we typically use communal sharing. People take what they want. Everyone is treated identically. No one has an advantage.

With authority ranking, we defer to people in a hierarchy. In a bank, a teller might report to a manager, who reports to a director, who reports to a Vice-President, who reports to the Chief Operating Officer, who reports to the CEO.

In equality matching, the focus is on each person getting an equal share. Drivers taking turns going through a four-way stop is an example of equality matching. A ceremonial gift exchange might be based on an ideal of equality matching.

Market pricing is used for impersonal exchange. It involves calculation of costs and benefits.

In large social units, above the Dunbar number, communal sharing and equality matching are very difficult to sustain. We are more likely to observe authority ranking or market pricing.

The rest of the post is a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the models.