Transcript No Slide Title

The Origins of War:
The Evolution of Intergroup Violence in
Animals and Man
Based on: The Origin of War:
The Evolution of a Male-Coalitional
Reproductive Strategy
Johan M.G. van der Dennen
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
– Hypertrophy of aggression
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
– Hypertropy of aggression
– Aggression instincts
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
– Hypertrophy of aggression
– Aggression instincts
– ‘Todestrieb’ or other destructive inclinations
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
–
–
–
–
Hypertrophy of aggression
Aggression instincts
‘Todestrieb’ or other destructive inclinations
Innate belligerence or bellicosity
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
–
–
–
–
–
Hypertrophy of aggression
Aggression instincts
‘Todestrieb’ or other destructive inclinations
Innate belligerence or bellicosity
‘Evil’ or malicious/malevolent Man(kind)
The Origins of War
• What this presentation is not about:
–
–
–
–
–
Hypertrophy of aggression
Aggression instincts
‘Todestrieb’ or other destructive inclinations
Innate belligerence or bellicosity
‘Evil’ or malicious/malevolent Man(kind)
• These are only quasi-explanations of human behavior
The Origins of War
• War as a unique one-time cultural invention
The Origins of War
• War as a unique one-time cultural invention
The Origins of War
• War as a unique one-time cultural invention
This picture
from Australia’s
‘Kakadu
National Park’
is at least ten
thousand years
old.
The Origins of War
• War as a unique one-time cultural invention
This picture
from Australia’s
‘Kakadu
National Park’
is at least ten
thousand years
old.
But are
these
hunters or
warriors?
The Origins of War
• War as a unique one-time cultural invention
This picture
from Australia’s
‘Kakadu
National Park’
is at least ten
thousand years
old.
But are
these
hunters or
warriors?
Does a
hunter need
a shield?
The Origins of War
• or phylogenetic (evolutionary) continuity?
The Origins of War
• or phylogenetic (evolutionary) continuity?
From altercations
and skirmishes
between animal
territorial groups
The Origins of War
• or phylogenetic (evolutionary) continuity?
Via violent conflicts
between preindustrial
(nonstate) societies
The Origins of War
• or phylogenetic (evolutionary) continuity?
Until ‘real’ wars
between city-states,
states, and empires
The Origins of War
• or phylogenetic (evolutionary) continuity?
From altercations
and skirmishes
between animal
territorial groups
Via violent conflicts
between
preindustrial
(nonstate) societies
Until ‘real’ wars
between city-states,
states, and empires
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
– Why war in only so few organisms?
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
– Why war in only so few organisms?
– Why this absence of intergroup competition?
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
– Why war in only so few organisms?
– Why this absence of intergroup competition?
– Why only males as warriors or soldiers?
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
– Why war in only so few organisms?
– Why this absence of intergroup competition?
– Why only males as warriors or soldiers?
• Plus two proximate-level questions:
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
– Why war in only so few organisms?
– Why this absence of intergroup competition?
– Why only males as warriors or soldiers?
• Plus two proximate-level questions:
• War causation (Why are particular wars waged?)
The Origins of War
• Three central problems:
– Why war in only so few organisms?
– Why this absence of intergroup competition?
– Why only males as warriors or soldiers?
• Plus two proximate-level questions:
• War causation (Why are particular wars waged?)
• Combat motivation (Why do males fight?)
The Origins of War
• The principal thesis of my evolutionary
scenario (evolutionario): War originated as
the result of enhanced (polyadic,
coalitional) cooperation between (a number
of) males within groups for the purpose of
violent competition between groups for
females and territory (or territory and the
females – and other resources – on it).
The Origins of War
• Alternatively, Wrangham (1999) presents
his adaptive hypothesis for explaining the
species distribution of intergroup coalitional
killing. This is the Imbalance-of-Power
Hypothesis, which suggests that coalitional
killing is the expression of a drive for
dominance over neighbors.
The Origins of War
• Two conditions are proposed to be both
necessary and sufficient to account for
coalitional killing of neighbors: (1) a state
of intergroup hostility; (2) sufficient
imbalances of power between parties that
one party can attack the other with
impunity. Under these conditions, it is
suggested, selection favors the tendency to
hunt and kill rivals when the costs are
sufficiently low.
The Origins of War
• But whether for territory/females or
intergroup dominance (which do not
exclude each other anyway), warring
behavior may be considered to be a strategy
which, as all other behaviors, originated and
developed in the course of evolution for the
optimation of reproductive success.
The Origins of War
The Origins of War
• Even if it looks like males (individual or in
coalitions) are fighting only for dominance
or territorial expansion, the underlying
rationale is the lifelong attempt to enhance
their chances of reproductive success
through monopolization of one or more
females, or increased access to females (via
subtle, sneaky, or aggressive/violent
tactics).
The Origins of War
• In social carnivores and primates it is the
females who form the stable social groupterritorial core. They live in family groups
of related females and their offspring. They
benefit most from the integrity or expansion
of the group territory; they have the most to
lose. But because their aim is ‘only’ the
strategic retreat of the other group – and not
reproductive success – their willingness to
incur injuries or even death is very slight.
The Origins of War
• Two principal modes or forms of intergroup
antagonism:
The Origins of War
• Two principal modes or forms of intergroup
antagonism:
• The (pitched) battle or combat (in humans
often ritualized to a large extent)
The Origins of War
These are some examples of battle or combat in humans. Above: The Dani (New Guinea).
Below: the phalanx – the greatest invention in the history of ‘civilized’ warfare.
The Origins of War
• Two principal modes or forms of intergroup
antagonism :
• The (pitched) battle or combat (in humans
often ritualized to a large extent)
• The raid or ambush (lethal male raiding)
(only to be found in humans [universally]
and chimpanzees [at least in some
populations] – and much more lethal than
the battles through small but rapidly
accumulating casualties)
Example of lethal male raiding by Timucua (Florida) Indians (de Bry,
± 1590). This is the archetypical raid; note the incendiary arrows.
The Origins of War
Intergroup antagonism in female macaques (Macaca
mulatta). Please observe the two combat lines (battle arrays).
The Origins of War
The Origins of War
• In only two known species (Homo sapiens
and Pan troglodytes) it is the males who use
coalitional violence – but then cold-blooded
and level-headed. Male chimps go ‘on
patrol’ to penetrate into the territory of ‘the
enemy’ and attack numerically weaker
foraging parties – and severely maul and
mortally injure their hapless victims. Their
behavior looks very deliberate, purposeful
and intentional - like a guerrilla operation.
The Origins of War
Two Kasakela males inspect the territory of ‘the enemy’.
Observe the contrast with the excited and vociferous
behavior of the macaque females.
The Origins of War
Here is another example of chimpanzee males going ‘on
patrol’ intentionally and apparently in cold-blood. They
look startled and alert rather than aggressive or angry.
The Origins of War
• The insufficiently explained phenomenon of
female migration between groups (or male
philopatry) in the HUCHIBO (HUmans,
CHImps, BOnobos [Pan paniscus]) clade...
The Origins of War
• ... is allegedly responsible for the origin and
evolution of a specific male psychology of
(polyadic) coalition formation. This
‘coalitional psychology’ probably evolved
initially through kin selection. A withingroup coalition of cooperating and
concertedly operating males is an eminent
and superb instrument in the competition
between groups for resources. For the
reproductive success of males females are
the ‘ultimate’ limiting resource.
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
– the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
– the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
• Kin selection (inclusive fitness, nepotism)
(Hamilton)
• Reciprocal altruism (reciprocity) (Trivers)
• The ‘risk-contract’ theory of coalitions (Tooby &
Cosmides)
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
– the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
– a certain amount of ethnocentrism
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
– the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
– a certain amount of ethnocentrism
– a high degree of social intelligence
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
– the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
– a certain amount of ethnocentrism
– a high degree of social intelligence
• ‘theory of mind’; Machiavellian intelligence
(suggesting malicious manipulation) or, more
neutrally, ‘strategic’ intelligence
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
–
–
–
–
the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
a certain amount of ethnocentrism
a high degree of social intelligence
ecological dominance
The Origins of War
• Necessary conditions for the origin and
evolution of war in the protohistory of the
human species have been:
–
–
–
–
the ability to cooperate and form coalitions
a certain amount of ethnocentrism
a high degree of social intelligence
ecological dominance
• putting a selection premium on larger groups, on an
arms race toward even more social intelligence and
communication, on technological intelligence
(weapon technology), and on hypersociality
(synergisms: Corning)
The Origins of War
• Misunderstandings about war
• An evolutionary theory of (the origin of)
war does not necessarily imply
– that war is a universal and ubiquitous
phenomenon (and we are stuck with it)
The Origins of War
• Misunderstandings about war
• An evolutionary theory of (the origin of)
war does not necessarily imply
– that war is a universal and ubiquitous
phenomenon (and we are stuck with it)
– that “men like fighting” (as the military
historian Van Creveld does not tire of
proclaiming)
The Origins of War
• Misunderstandings about war
• An evolutionary theory of (the origin of)
war does not necessarily imply
– that war is a universal and ubiquitous
phenomenon (and we are stuck with it)
– that “men like fighting” (as the military
historian Van Creveld does not tire of
proclaiming)
– or that humanity is ‘damned’ to war for all
eternity. Even among the most warlike societies
peace is the normal condition.
The Origins of War
• Finally…
• It is probably not superfluous to make clear that
the conditions under which violent intergroup
competition originated and evolved are radically
distinct from the conditions of our world today.
Warring behavior has become ‘unhooked’ from its
selective advantages (as Bobbi Low called it)
The Origins of War
• Finally…
• It is probably not superfluous to make clear that
the conditions under which violent intergroup
competition originated and evolved are radically
distinct from the conditions of our world today.
Warring behavior has become ‘unhooked’ from its
selective advantages (as Bobbi Low called it)
• Modern arms technology makes the cost-benefit
calculus of war through massive destruction of
human lives and resources increasingly
unacceptable (though not necessarily apocalyptic)
The Origins of War