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Intelligence, Coalitional Killing, and the Antecedents of War
Author(s) -
ROSCOE PAUL
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.2007.109.3.485
Subject(s) - dominance (genetics) , psychology , social psychology , criminology , biology , biochemistry , gene
Advances in primatological research have recently led to a hypothesis that lethal coalitionary raiding in chimpanzees is the product of an evolutionarily adaptive “dominance drive” that disposes adult males to seek out low‐cost opportunities for conspecific killing. This conclusion has been extended into a claim that human warfare and other forms of coalitional killing are outcomes of a hardwired, “demonic male” complex. Reversing this evidential approach, I argue from data on conspecific killing in humans that humans and chimpanzees have an aversion to killing conspecifics. Their lethal violence, I propose, is more parsimoniously explained as the result of a developed intelligence capable of envisioning the future and, when necessary, of disabling this aversion to achieve desired goals.