Significance Social adversity is strongly linked to health and fitness outcomes in humans and other social mammals. This observation arises in part through “biological embedding”: persistent, social environment-induced biological changes that may affect immune function. Here we show that low social status in female rhesus macaques leads to a highly proinflammatory response to both bacterial and viral challenge. In addition, we show that past social status also affects gene expression, and that past low status leads to reduced sensitivity to current social conditions. Thus, the first line of defense in the macaque immune system is altered by both current social conditions and a biological memory of past events. Our results provide insight into how social adversity gets under the skin over long time spans.