ANTH4009W: Warfare and Human Evolution

3 CreditsIntellectual CommunityWriting Intensive

Armed, violent conflict among groups ? warfare ? is a distinctive and devastating trait ofmany human societies. The practice of warfare brings together a number of unusualcharacteristics of our species, including the ability to cooperate, to discuss plans, and to makeand use weapons, which together combine to create immense human suffering. War has longbeen a central topic of anthropologists, who have raised many questions. Is warfare a humanuniversal? Are there truly peaceful societies? Why does war occur more often at some times andplaces than others? How, when and why did warfare evolve? What, if anything, does warfarehave to do with intergroup aggression in other animals? What role has warfare, or its moreprimitive antecedents, played in the evolution of our species? Efforts to explain war havethemselves been contentious, with some scholars arguing that war is a recent phenomenonresulting from factors such the development of agriculture, and other scholars arguing that war isan evolutionarily ancient phenomenon with roots in the common ancestor of humans andchimpanzees. In this seminar, we will read and discuss classic and recent texts on this broad andoften divisive subject. To better assess the arguments presented in survey and theoretical papers,we will read original ethnographic materials, with each student choosing one subsistence societyas the focus of their research efforts.

View on University Catalog

All Instructors

A- Average (3.667)Most Common: A (54%)

This total also includes data from semesters with unknown instructors.

13 students
NFDCBA
  • 4.42

    /5

    Recommend
  • 4.58

    /5

    Effort
  • 4.65

    /5

    Understanding
  • 4.50

    /5

    Interesting
  • 4.58

    /5

    Activities


  • Samyok Nepal

    Website/Infrastructure Lead

  • Kanishk Kacholia

    Backend/Data Lead

  • Joey McIndoo

    Feature Engineering

Contribute on our Github

Gopher Grades is maintained by Social Coding with data from Summer 2017 to Fall 2024 provided by the Office of Institutional Data and Research

Privacy Policy