Individuals are routinely confronted by situations in which they must jointly determine how to allocate resources or costs across a number of parties.  A plethora of distinct distributive norms address how these benefits and burdens should be equitably disbursed.  I consider some classic ‘solutions’ to the problem of fair division (John Nash’s famous bargaining solution, David Gauthier’s minimax relative concession, etc.) in a cultural-evolutionary context.  I show that if so-called meta-bargaining is permitted, the utilitarian bargaining solution has a privileged status.  Namely, the utilitarian bargaining solution has certain stability properties alternative norms of fair division lack.  My analysis thus provides us with some reason to think utilitarian norms of division are the likely outcome of a cultural-evolutionary process.