ANTH4009W: Warfare and Human Evolution

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.

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