Reciprocal exchanges across multilayered networks show an emerging patron–client system led by salaried households

Evolutionary models of social inequality suggest that status differentiation can emerge within cooperative networks through sustained asymmetric exchanges between high- and low-value resources, giving rise to patron-client relationships. From a network perspective, such asymmetric relationships take the form of multilayered reciprocity, where different types of resources are exchanged across domains. By analysing multilayered support networks in Matlab, Bangladesh, a region undergoing rapid market integration, we examine how multilayered reciprocity is differently leveraged depending on socioeconomic status and how these exchange patterns reflect an emerging patron-client system in an increasingly market-integrated community. Evidence of multilayered reciprocity is found for salaried households who provide cash and receive household items and/or labour services, but similar patterns are not found for landowners or local political leaders. Further, observed asymmetries in exchange patterns suggest that salaried households may be emerging as new patrons providing sought-after resources (especially cash) to clients with limited access to such resources, replacing a traditional patron-client system based on land ownership and political leadership. Our findings highlight a mechanism by which human cooperation can give rise to new forms of social inequality, offering a framework for extending evolutionary models to explain cooperation and inequality in changing socioeconomic contexts.