Hostname: page-component-669899f699-qzcqf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-03T07:48:29.428Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Author's response: The challenge of peace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2024

Luke Glowacki Open the ORCID record for Luke Glowacki [Opens in a new window]
Luke Glowacki*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA [email protected] https://www.hsb-lab.org/
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The 30 commentators are largely sympathetic to the account I develop for the origins of peace in humans, though many suggest that peace has deeper roots and that humans share characteristics of peace with other species. Multiple commentators propose how to extend my framework or focus on the cognitive and psychological prerequisites for peace. In my reply, I discuss these considerations and further my account of why I think peace as defined here was unlikely prior to behavioral modernity which emerged approximately 100,000 years ago. In general, there seems to be a consensus that moving the debate beyond “war versus peace” in human evolution and instead focusing on the conditions that enable war or peace is a fruitful direction for the field to take.

Type
Author's Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 47 , 2024 , e32
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aubert, M., Lebe, R., Oktaviana, A. A., Tang, M., Burhan, B., Hamrullah, , … Brumm, A. (2019). Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art. Nature, 576(7787), Article 7787. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1806-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brumm, A., Oktaviana, A. A., Burhan, B., Hakim, B., Lebe, R., Zhao, J., … Aubert, M. (2021). Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi. Science Advances, 7(3), eabd4648. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dogan, G., Glowacki, L., & Rusch, H. (2018). Spoils division rules shape aggression between natural groups. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 322–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dogan, G., Glowacki, L., & Rusch, H. (2022). Are strangers just enemies you have not yet met? Group homogeneity, not intergroup relations, shapes ingroup bias in three natural groups. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377, 20210419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitouchi, L., & Singh, M. (2023). Punitive justice serves to restore reciprocal cooperation in three small-scale societies. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.03.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfield, Z. H. (2021). Correlates of conflict resolution across cultures. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 3, e45. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.41CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garfield, Z. H., & Glowacki, L. (2023). Inter-personal conflicts and third-party mediation in a pastoralist society. OSF Preprints. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/zf4e9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfield, Z. H., Ringen, E. J., Buckner, W., Medupe, D., Wrangham, R. W., & Glowacki, L. (2023). Norm violations and punishments across human societies. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5, e11. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glowacki, L., Isakov, A., Wrangham, R. W., McDermott, R., Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2016). Formation of raiding parties for intergroup violence is mediated by social network structure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(43), 12114–12119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1610961113CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glowacki, L., & McDermott, R. (2022). Key individuals catalyse intergroup violence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1851), 20210141. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0141CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glowacki, L., & von Rueden, C. (2015). Leadership solves collective action problems in small-scale societies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1683), 20150010. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glowacki, L., & Wrangham, R. (2015). Warfare and reproductive success in a tribal population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(2), 348–353. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1412287112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henshilwood, C., d'Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., & Jacobs, Z. (2004). Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science (New York, N.Y.), 304(5669), 404–404. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1095905CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kissel, M., & Fuentes, A. (2018). “Behavioral modernity” as a process, not an event, in the human niche. Time and Mind, 11(2), 163–183. https://doi.org/10.1080/1751696X.2018.1469230CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, A., Armitage, S. J., Niespolo, E. M., Sharp, W. D., Stahlschmidt, M. C., Blackwood, A. F., … Steele, T. E. (2022). Environmental influences on human innovation and behavioural diversity in Southern Africa 92–80 thousand years ago. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(4), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01667-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marean, C. W., Bar-Matthews, M., Bernatchez, J., Fisher, E., Goldberg, P., Herries, A. I. R., … Williams, H. M. (2007). Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature, 449(7164), Article 7164. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06204CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Massaro, A. P., Gilby, I. C., Desai, N., Weiss, A., Feldblum, J. T., Pusey, A. E., & Wilson, M. L. (2022). Correlates of individual participation in boundary patrols by male chimpanzees. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1851), 20210151. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0151CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathew, S. (2017). How the second-order free rider problem is solved in a small-scale society. American Economic Review, 107(5), 578–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathew, S., & Boyd, R. (2011). Punishment sustains large-scale cooperation in prestate warfare. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(28), 11375–11380. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1105604108CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Powell, A., Shennan, S., & Thomas, M. G. (2009). Late Pleistocene demography and the appearance of modern human behavior. Science (New York, N.Y.), 324(5932), 1298–1301. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1170165CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Režek, Ž., Dibble, H. L., McPherron, S. P., Braun, D. R., & Lin, S. C. (2018). Two million years of flaking stone and the evolutionary efficiency of stone tool technology. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(4), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0488-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shennan, S. (2001). Demography and cultural innovation: A model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 11(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774301000014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, M., & Garfield, Z. H. (2022). Evidence for third-party mediation but not punishment in Mentawai justice. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 930–940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, M., Glowacki, L., & Wrangham, R. W. (2016). Self-interested agents create, maintain, and modify group-functional culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39(e30), 40–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, M., Wrangham, R., & Glowacki, L. (2017). Self-interest and the design of rules. Human Nature, 28, 457–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stiner, M. C., & Kuhn, S. L. (2006). Changes in the “connectedness” and resilience of Paleolithic societies in Mediterranean ecosystems. Human Ecology, 34(5), 693–712. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9041-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, Billig, M. G, Bundy, R. P, & Flament, Claude. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1(2), 149–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0992CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, R. S., Hill, K. R., Flinn, M. V., & Ellsworth, R. M. (2011). Evolutionary history of hunter–gatherer marriage practices. PLoS ONE, 6(4), e19066. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019066CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zilhão, J. (2007). The emergence of ornaments and art: An archaeological perspective on the origins of “Behavioral Modernity.” Journal of Archaeological Research, 15(1), 1–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-006-9008-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar