Monday, October 10, 2016

Lawrence Davidson — Are Humans Natural-Born Killers?

A new study, published in the journal Nature and entitled “The Phylogenetic Roots of Human Lethal Violence,” argues two points: (1) along with many other mammals and particularly primates, human lethal violence is innate because it is part of a long “evolutionary history”; and (2) for humans, however, it is also a behavior that is responsive to our cultural environment. So, over time, “culture modulates our bloodthirsty tendencies.”
What is particularly original about this study is that it places human violence against the backdrop of general mammalian and primate lethal behavior. The researchers found that there is a correlation between the level of intra-group violence of those species that lie close to each other on the evolutionary tree.
In order to come to this conclusion the authors of the study (who are evolutionary biologists) looked at the available data on in-group violent deaths in 1,020 mammal species. From this information they tried to approximate how murderous each group is. For conclusions about the human propensity for murder, the researchers looked at 600 human groups stretching back as far as 50,000 years ago. It turns out we are less violent than baboons and more violent than bonobos, while about as violent as chimpanzees.…
For instance, this study claims that among Paleolithic hunter-gather groups, roughly 2 percent of deaths were the result of lethal violence. Later, in medieval times, this allegedly jumps to 12 percent. But in the modern age, with “industrialized states exerting the rule of law,” the rate appears to have fallen to 1.3 percent. Is all of this really accurate?
The authors are not the first to make this claim. The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, in a 2011 book entitled The Better Angels of Our Nature, argues that humans can and have lowered their level of interpersonal violence through creating institutions and laws that discourage such behavior.
As a general rule we should be wary of such sweeping claims about behavior over such large expanses of time. As one observer of the Nature study commented, much of the data [sources range from archeological digs to modern crime statistics] is “imprecise.” The same is true of Pinker’s evidence. It is due to just such challenges that such studies present these claims in terms of statistical models.…
All of this only gives added credence to the notion that our willingness to slaughter each other is innate – an adaptive habit of a long evolutionary history. This conclusion is offered as an explanation rather than an excuse. For, as the Naturestudy authors recognize, culture can impact such behavior – tamping it down at least within a designated in-group.
Yet it is hard to shake the feeling that our addiction to lethal violence is our evolutionary fate, and that it hangs there, like a sword of Damocles. always ready to impose itself should the delicate strand of law snap.
Look like Hobbes's law of the jungle over Rousseau's noble savage is correct. This is reflected mythologically in the biblical story of Cain slaying Abel, as well as the theological conception of the effects of "original sin." Law is a cultural institution to bridle that tendency of the human disposition.

Consortium News
Are Humans Natural-Born Killers?
Lawrence Davidson, retired professor of history, West Chester University, West Chester PA

6 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"For instance, why should the medieval period be so much more violent than the Paleolithic if societal institutions and laws were so much more developed at that later time? "


Simple: "out of money!..."

Matt Franko said...

"It is due to just such challenges that such studies present these claims in terms of statistical models.…"

Tip-off....

Random said...

WTF?

Random said...

WTF?

Matt Franko said...

We didnt have competition for gold and silver to kill each other over in the Paleolithic...

And when we look at something via stochastics its a tip-off that we dont really understand what is going on with it...

Matt Franko said...

Most killing takes place under the metals...

North American colonization, US Civil War, WW1, WW2...

The nations go to war over obtaining it from each other...