LATimes | It's been argued that warfare is as old as humanity itself -- that the
affairs of primitive society were marked by chronic raiding and feuding
between groups.
Now, a new study published in Science argues just the opposite.
After
reviewing a database of present-day ethnographies for 21
hunter-gatherer societies -- groups that most closely resemble our
evolutionary past -- researchers at Abo Akademi University in Finland
concluded that early man had little need or cause for war.
Though these so-called mobile forager band societies -- referred to
in the report as MFBS -- were not free of violence, researchers said the
mayhem was very unorganized and seldom involved rival groups.
In
fact, the violence practiced by these wandering societies was
overwhelmingly murder, plain and simple, according to Douglas Fry, an
anthropology professor, and Patrik Soderberg, a developmental psychology
graduate student.
"Many
lethal disputes involved two men competing over a particular woman
(sometimes the wife of one of them), revenge homicide exacted by family
members of a victim (often aimed at the specific person responsible for
the previous killing), and interpersonal quarrels of various kinds; for
instance, stealing of honey, insults or taunting, incest, self-defense
or protection of a loved-one," authors wrote.
The researchers
examined 148 killings and their reported cause. For the most part, the
21 groups were peaceful, but one group in particular stood out for its
violence, the Tiwi of Australia. They generated nearly half of the
lethal events.
"The findings suggest that MFBS are not
particularly warlike if the actual circumstances of lethal aggression
are examined. Fifty-five percent of the lethal events involved a sole
perpetrator killing only one individual (64% if the atypical Tiwi are
removed). One-person-killing-one-person reflects homicide or
manslaughter, not coalitional killing or war," the authors wrote.
Only 15% of the lethal events occurred across societal lines, however.
