Warfare Began with Human Hunter-Gatherers?

Research scientist suggests that the potential for full scale warfare is uniquely human, not an invention of earlier primate ancestors


Author Robert Ardrey's* popularization of the theory that modern humans are in part a product of their violent primate ancestral past may have some merit, with a twist, according to Dr. Christopher Boehm, Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at the University of Southern California. In a review published in the May 18, 2012 issue of the journal Science, he suggests that, though the common ancestor to modern-day chimpanzees, bonobos and humans may have used conflict to solve problems and achieve objectives, it was not until the later human hunter-gatherers that the more organized, full-scale features of aggression and conflict that define actual warfare developed.
Boehm (pictured right) draws this insight based on comparative behavioral studies among humans and their closest genetic relatives, the chimpanzees and the bonobos. Chimpanzees and other apes, like humans, have been observed to exhibit violence as a means of addressing their environment or relating to others. Bonobos, although not strangers to conflict and violence, have been observed as being significantly less agressive. The characteristics common to warfare, however, which include the application of social, organizational and technological skills not found among non-human primates, were observed first only among human hunter-gatherer groups.
For those of us who have a more positive outlook on our biological heritage, however, there is a silver lining in all of this. Boehm also proposes that it was not until the emergence of human hunter-gatherers that conflict resolution through the employment of tools such as truces and peace pacts were developed and employed. Thus today, he maintains, humans have the genetic basis for both conflict and conflict management.

 http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/march-2012/article/warfare-began-with-human-hunter-gatherers