For example, among the Greenland Norse -- a competitive rank society -- what the chiefs really wanted is more followers and more sheep and more resources to outcompete the neighboring chiefs. And that led the chiefs to do what's called flogging the land: overstocking the land, forcing tenant farmers into dependency. And that made the chiefs powerful in the short run, but led to the society's collapse in the long run.
Na primjer, u kompetitivnom društvu grenlandskih Nordijaca, ono što su poglavice stvarno htjeli jest da imaju više sljedbenika, kao i više ovaca i resursa da bi prestigli susjedne poglavice. To je navelo poglavice da rade ono što nazivamo šibanjem zemlje: njeno preopterećenje koje je primoralo zemljoradnike na ovisnost. To je poglavice kratkoročno učinilo moćnima, ali je dovelo do dugoročnog društvenog kolapsa.