In recent years, researchers have recognized that power and subjection between groups characterize even small-scale cultures. Secret societies, central to the hierarchical sociopolitical development of small-scale communities, plays a pivotal role in understanding the mechanisms by which power is established and institutionalized. Secrecy also indicates a particular social attitude toward supernatural knowledge. Secrecy involving claims to supernatural and political forces provides at least one basis for exercising power. In these societies, spiritual knowledge is often...