Since the adult males were the strongest members of the pack, physical compulsion would not work. Some other device was needed.
Possibly an early sense of 'moral' behaviour might restrain the alpha, but I would posit a more basic force - that of the pack. IOW, the male 'pack' (the non-alpha males) might use their social hunting skills to remove to over-bearing a leader. Chimps show social alliance behaviour of this sort, and even australopithecines were more advanced (larger brains, anyhow), implying quite significant social/pack structures.
Couple this (sic) with the greater sexual capacity of a female capable of orgasm, the relative ease of satiating a male, and the menopause giving a supply of non-breeding females: and excessively dominant males, without countering advantages, would soon be bypassed without need of divine intervention.
IMO worship, and the reverence of the speakers of the gods, would require a society with larger social groups and more surplus food than and pre-Neanderthal society could support.
I would speculate that individual dominance was actually more limited in primitive man (genus Homo, as far as sapiens sapiens - Cro-Magnon man) than either the more apelike forebears, or the more social followers. In between, the individual limitations would give too great an advantage to pack behaviour: while prior, individual strength would be unlikely to be checked by the minimal ability for abstract reasoning. Only once both intelligence and social behaviour were established could a non-productive intermediary really have a good chance of survival based on wits and fast talking... |
