The diversity of hunter-gatherer social structures documented across ethnographic and historical records is enormous.

Some mobile foraging communities are indeed strongly egalitarian, with active mechanisms for suppressing the emergence of hierarchy.

Others show significant social differentiation, with recognized leaders, hereditary prestige, or specialist roles that carry authority.

The specific social structure of any given community depends on a complex of ecological, demographic, and historical factors that cannot be predicted from the foraging label alone.

PPN communities in the Fertile Crescent appear, from multiple lines of evidence, to have been experimenting with increased social complexity.