The Frequency of Warfare: an Evolutionary Perspective*

Leavitt, Gregory C.

doi:10.1111/j.1475-682x.1977.tb00778.x

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Previous studies of violence and warfare in a selection of Polynesian islands [5] and the Caroline Islands [6] indicate that both interpersonal violence and warfare are likely to increase with total population, consistent with the broader cross-cultural studies of Ember [26], Leavitt [27], and Rosenfeld and Messner [28]. Figure 2 shows that this is not the case with the Melanesian societies sampled here.…”

Section: Journal Of Anthropologysupporting

confidence: 84%

Violence and Warfare in Precontact Melanesia

Younger

2014

Journal of Anthropology

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Levels of interpersonal violence and warfare for 30 Melanesian societies at the time of contact with Europeans are estimated based on ethnographic and historical records. While violence was common in indigenous Melanesia, it was not ubiquitous and some societies experienced extended periods of internal and external peace. Interpersonal violence and warfare were correlated-when one occurred there was a high probability of finding the other. Violence was not dependent on total population. It was, however, higher for population density greater than 50 persons per square kilometer. Violence in Melanesia may have been stimulated by the large number of relatively small polities, many of which competed with one another for prestige and, in some cases, land.

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Section: Journal Of Anthropologysupporting

confidence: 84%

Violence and Warfare in Precontact Melanesia

Younger

2014

Journal of Anthropology

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“…EET has been shown to provide a comprehensive and powerful framework for identifying and analyzing determinants and consequences of fundamental features of human societies (e.g., Lenski 1970;Lenski, Lenski, and Nolan 1991;Lenski 1996, 1999). In fact, previous analyses have shown frequency of warfare to vary systematically by categories of subsistence technology, a cornerstone of EET (Lenski 1970:138±39;Leavitt 1977;Lenski and Lenski 1978:164).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most comprehensive test of this thinking to date supports these arguments and hypotheses. Using frequency-of-warfare data reported by Leavitt (1977), Lenski and Lenski (1978:164) found a clear pattern of increasing warfare associated with reliance on horticulture and the development of metallurgy (see Table 1).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward an Ecological-Evolutionary Theory of the Incidence of Warfare in Preindustrial Societies

Nolan

2003

Sociological Theory

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Prompted by the lack of attention by sociologists and the challenge of materialist explanations of warfare in “precivilized” societies posed by Keeley (1996), this paper tests and finds support for two materialist hypotheses concerning the likelihood of warfare in preindustrial societies: specifically, that, as argued by ecological-evolutionary theory, dominant mode of subsistence is systematically related to rates of warfare; and that, within some levels of technological development, higher levels of “population pressure” are associated with a greater likelihood of warfare. Using warfare measures developed by Ember and Ember (1995), measures of subsistence technology originally developed by Lenski (1966, 1970), and the standard sample of societies developed by Murdock and White (1969), this study finds evidence that warfare is more likely in advanced horticultural and agrarian societies than it is in hunting-and-gathering and simple horticultural societies, and that it is also more likely in hunting-and-gathering and agrarian societies that have above-average population densities. These findings offer substantial support for ecological-evolutionary theory and qualified but intriguing support for “population pressure” as explanations of cross-cultural variation in the likelihood of warfare.

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“…. that a number of observers have spoken of a kind of “primitive communism”.’ In addition, population densities for nomadic food collectors average only one person per square mile with population growth very low; and so, while conflict certainly exists, perpetual warfare (e.g., feuding, rioting, external or violent contact) for hunter-gatherers is non-existent, and warfare in general rare (Nolan and Lenski, 2018: 118; see also Leavitt, 1977).…”

Section: The Evolution Of Human Societiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The deep origins of society: An assessment of E.O. Wilson’s Genesis

Turner¹,

Maryanski²

2019

International Sociology

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E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies is one of a series of short books where the author has tried to explain human societies using ideas and concepts from biology. While Wilson is to be lauded for his recent efforts to reintroduce the notions of group selection and multilevel selection, he still sustains an emphasis on only Darwinian selection and reveals a bias toward seeing selection for groups as a result of selection on individuals (as is the case for insects), perhaps entangled with selection on groups. The effort to conceive of human societies as an example of eusocieties of social insects ignores most of the sociological works on human and societal evolution; and as a result, the book is not convincing in its argument. Despite the pleasant writing style, Wilson and other biologists writing about human societies need to engage the almost 200 years of sociological work devoted to understanding the evolution of human societies.

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The Frequency of Warfare: an Evolutionary Perspective*

Cited by 17 publications

References 19 publications

Violence and Warfare in Precontact Melanesia

Violence and Warfare in Precontact Melanesia

Toward an Ecological-Evolutionary Theory of the Incidence of Warfare in Preindustrial Societies

The deep origins of society: An assessment of E.O. Wilson’s Genesis

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