There four fundamental relational models: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing. Each of them utilizes a distinct conformation system to represent, communicate, coordinate, motivate, and evaluate social relationships of that kind. The conformation systems are indexical equivalence of bodies, iconic dimensions of rank, concrete operations of one-to-one matching, and purely conventional symbolism of proportions. The chapter also introduces complementarity theory, which posits innate structures that can function only in conjunction with cultural complements. It concludes by saying that the book is intended to be an antitheses to symbolic anthropology.

People conform communal sharing by making their body surfaces the same through body modification, body marking, dress, hair, adornment, or uniforms; also, circumcision and clitoridectomy, as well as initiation rites. Synchronized rhythmic motion is also consubstantial assimilation. Preverbal infants recognize that synchronous rhythmic movement conforms communal sharing, and so does mouth-to-mouth food sharing. When they see agents do that, infants expect the agents to help or comfort each other. One implication of infant innate knowledge of relational models and their conformation systems is that social development consists of externalizing innate knowledge and dispositions, which requires that the infant learn the cultural complements of their innate relational models. The phylogenetic precursors to consubstantial assimilation include grooming in primates and affiliative licking in other mammals. Conformations often involve multiple recursive cycles, generating not only common knowledge, but common emotions, motives, and moral sentiments.