Groups use ridicule, obligatory sharing and demanded modesty to prevent any member converting success into standing.
Lee's account of a Kalahari Christmas is the standard illustration: he bought an unusually large ox for the camp and was told repeatedly that it was a bag of bones, until he understood that disparaging a successful hunter's kill is how the group stops a good hunter becoming a big man. The insult is the institution.
In practice
- A salesperson who beats target is teased for a fortnight, and the teasing is doing the work an incentive scheme was meant to avoid.
- A neighbour who repaints the front of the house is told it looks lovely in a tone that ensures nobody else does it.