In this work, we are studying with agent-based modelling a basic pre-industrial-like economic system of producer agents situated in a 2D world and the evolution of its decisions to initiate war. We are considering wars initiated by inequality criteria, namely perception of wealth inequality and perception of status goods inequality, which is a type of greed. We have already shown that cultural evolution by simple inheritance favours inequality and greed and these war decisions in the end decrease inequality. Based on this prior finding, we investigate the pathways that may lead to the evolution of such behaviours. One crucial factor is the perishability of food that cannot be stored in huge quantities so that a technologically advanced society may redirect its effort to development of status goods. The most important factor however is the emergence of reasoning and attack based on perceivable inequality criteria, whether it concerns actual food or status goods. We show that pure cultural selection by imitation of such behaviours is very rare and depends instead on a critical mass and the construction and maintenance of appropriate ideological structures that are culturally inherited.