We measure moments of the galaxy count probability distribution function in the two-degree field galaxy redshift survey ( 2dFGRS ) .
The survey is divided into volume limited subsamples in order to examine the dependence of the higher order clustering on galaxy luminosity .
We demonstrate the hierarchical scaling of the averaged p -point galaxy correlation functions , \bar { \xi } _ { p } , up to p = 6 .
The hierarchical amplitudes , S _ { p } = \bar { \xi } _ { p } / \bar { \xi } _ { 2 } ^ { p - 1 } , are approximately independent of the cell radius used to smooth the galaxy distribution on small to medium scales .
On larger scales we find the higher order moments can be strongly affected by the presence of rare , massive superstructures in the galaxy distribution .
The skewness S _ { 3 } has a weak dependence on luminosity , approximated by a linear dependence on log luminosity .
We discuss the implications of our results for simple models of linear and non-linear bias that relate the galaxy distribution to the underlying mass .