Among the Chimbu of highland New Guinea, Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus report in their book “The Creation of Inequality” that, “About 15 percent of the population wound up as unproductive “rubbish men” who attached themselves to Big Men as errand boys. Childless rubbish men never married, because their kinsmen considered them such losers that they would not contribute to their purchase of a wife. Ordinary men, usually monogamous and at least minimally involved in trade, made up 70 percent of the population. The remaining 15 percent were Big Men, Alpha Men, who averaged between two and three wives, many children, and were very successful at trade, controlling almost all the valuables.