State + sexual signaling

Predation has always been a part of human evolutionary strategies. And since the rise of complex societies and states, the most successful strategy.

In a society of hunter-gatherers, some hunters are more successful than others.

A successful provider has to be a fighter against humans as well as a hunter or farmer. If a good hunter gets killed in a land dispute with a neighbour who is a worse hunter but better fighter, he is not a good provider. And if he has to flee to a worse hunting ground to avoid the above fate, he is not a good provider either.

In a hunter-gatherer society, the hunters were too poor to provide for rulers and warriors. A fearsome warrior might kill his neighbors or frighten them away and seize best and biggest hunting grounds but he still had to hunt himself to provide for himself and his women and children - if he could not hunt, he starved.

In complex societies, however, it was possible to become specialized warriors and chieftains - getting fed by subordinate farmers.

There was only so many full-time warriors that a given number of farmers could feed. Most members of a farming society were still farmers, and good farmers could support wives and children. But a chieftain with his tax income could support rather more wives and children for himself than any one good farmer could support with his after tax income.