The Politics of Grooming and the Evolution of Language

anthropologists seem to assume that raw social power is most a good thing. One wonders if they've ever seen social pressure applied. Gossip has, as far as i can tell, an almost universally positive vailance throughout anthropology. In the literature, it is bortrayed as something that maintains social relationships and rids groups of free writers and cheats. That is, gossip is a levelling mechanism that prevents individuals from accruing too much power.