Are Hunter- Gatherers Inherently Warlike?
"Today"
The Sentinelese are among the last hunter-gatherers who still resist contact with the outside world. Only very occasionally have they been lured down to the beach of their tiny island home by gifts of coconuts and only once or twice have they taken gifts without sending a shower of arrows in return. Today several archaeologist and anthropologist argue that violence and warfare are much more common in hunter-gatherers society than in more recent eras. From the Kung in the Kalahari to Inuit in the Arctic and Aborigines in Australia two-thirds of modern hunter-gatherers are in state of almost constant tribal warfare and nearly 90% go to war at least once a year. A lot of the wars are not very deadly but still a lot of people die because of so many wars and also homicide.
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| The Sentinelese People |
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| Showering Arrows |
"Yesterday"
Since there are no written records , we don't know for sure whether hunter-gatherer were war like or not. In most foraging societies says anthropologists Douglas Fry lethal warlike aggression was infrequent. In the archaeological record violence didn't take regular group on group characteristics until relatively recently when people settled down in ever larger and more complex and hierarchical societies. Previously most killings were motivated by sexual jealousy, revenge for previous murder, insults or other interpersonal quarrels. Collective between group violence was the exception, not the rule. To Fry, the weight of evidence suggests that the original human were, if not exactly peaceful, then not warlike either.
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| Primitive Man and Woman |
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| Foraging Societies |
"Yesterday and Today"
I feel like the environment changed about 10,000 years ago. Before 10,000 years ago hunter-gatherer had a lot more unoccupied open spaces to move to if they needed more land. About 10,000 years ago the population grew large enough that the number of places they could go to that weren't already occupied started disappearing. Neighbors started fighting wars about land. The invention about bows and arrows about about 10,000 years ago allowed a great increase in the population growth because they could shoot small fast animals from far away. In addition bows and arrows made it easier to fight wars.
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| Hunter Gatherers from the past. |
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| Modern Hunter Gatherers. |
Current Event Article:
Noble or Savage
-December 19, 2007-
Link: http://www.economist.com/node/10278703
Ancient Article:
Human may not be so warlike after all
- July 6, 2013-
By Brandon Keim
Link:http://www.wired.com/2013/07/to-war-is-human-perhaps-not/
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