Evolutionary and Life History Insights into Masculinity and Warfare

Bribiescas, Richard G.

doi:10.1086/711688

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 139 publications

(137 reference statements)

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“…Comparisons with other primates and bioarcheological evidence suggest that violent conflict has long been a part of primate life and human evolutionary history (Bribiescas, 2021;Martin & Harrod, 2015;Wrangham & Peterson, 1996). Though it is challenging to estimate base rates of lethal violence in past societiesin part, because not all forms of lethal violence leave a trace the fossil recordbioarcheologists do agree there has been substantial variability in the use and types of violence across time and space (Martin & Harrod, 2015;Roser, 2013).…”

Section: Violent Conflict With Noncaregiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology

Frankenhuis

Amir

2021

Dev Psychopathol

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In psychological research, there are often assumptions about the conditions that children expect to encounter during their development. These assumptions shape prevailing ideas about the experiences that children are capable of adjusting to, and whether their responses are viewed as impairments or adaptations. Specifically, the expected childhood is often depicted as nurturing and safe, and characterized by high levels of caregiver investment. Here, we synthesize evidence from history, anthropology, and primatology to challenge this view. We integrate the findings of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and cross-cultural investigations on three forms of threat (infanticide, violent conflict, and predation) and three forms of deprivation (social, cognitive, and nutritional) that children have faced throughout human evolution. Our results show that mean levels of threat and deprivation were higher than is typical in industrialized societies, and that our species has experienced much variation in the levels of these adversities across space and time. These conditions likely favored a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, or the ability to tailor development to different conditions. This body of evidence has implications for recognizing developmental adaptations to adversity, for cultural variation in responses to adverse experiences, and for definitions of adversity and deprivation as deviation from the expected human childhood.

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Section: Violent Conflict With Noncaregiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology

Frankenhuis

Amir

2021

Dev Psychopathol

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“…What sense can be made of the conundrum that most violence is carried out by males, but not all males carry out violence? It is known that young males in particular are risk takers and will participate in actions that may make them vulnerable to death (Apicella, Crittenden, and Tobolsky 2017;Bribiescas 2021). While this is partially associated with rises in testosterone and other growth hormones in the teen years, there is variability across cultures just as standards for masculinity vary across time and space (Bribiescas 2006(Bribiescas :121, 2021.…”

Section: Violence As An Integral Part Of Cultural Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In evolutionary terms, the origin and evolution of violence is really a discussion about the evolution of reproductive strategies. This framing is often reduced to the Darwinian truism that to successfully reproduce and pass genetic material on to the next generation, males need access to females, but females' primary needs include access to resources (Bribiescas 2021). There is a rich and vast literature on pair bonding theory that will not be covered here, but one aspect of male-female interactions that has been highlighted by scholars seeking to understand the origins and evolution of violence includes male motivation to successfully reproduce and competition for scarce resources (see for examples the often-cited Daly and Wilson [1988]).…”

Section: Violence As An Integral Part Of Cultural Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, studies over and over show that masculinity, maleness, aggression, and violence are not caused solely by biology, hormones, or genes and that these behaviors are not directly inherited (Bribiescas 2006(Bribiescas , 2021. While some studies show correlations, causation has been nearly impossible to demonstrate.…”

Section: Violence As An Integral Part Of Cultural Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Violence and Masculinity in Small-Scale Societies

Martin¹

2021

Current Anthropology

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Archaeological and ethnographic accounts of violence in small-scale societies represent a baseline for thinking about the ways that violence and masculinity originated and evolved, becoming entwined social processes. Male violence (lethal and nonlethal) is expressed in diverse and complex ways because it is associated with social spheres of power and influence, and it is embedded within ideologies, histories, and collective memories. Applying anthropological research on violence as a generative and transformational social process demonstrates how violence plays a key role in creating, maintaining, and transforming social structures in small-scale societies. The reinterpretation of massacre sites in the ancient Southwestern United States in terms of social ideologies and beliefs offers an important counterbalance to earlier work that portrayed violence as the result of environmental stressors and/or cultural crises. Using an interpretive (poetics) approach that focuses on the ritualized aspects of male violence provides rich insights into the social processes governing the cultural logic that normalizes and institutionalizes violence.

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Becoming the Solution

Aarssen

2022

What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future

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Evolutionary and Life History Insights into Masculinity and Warfare

Cited by 10 publications

References 139 publications

What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology

What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology

Violence and Masculinity in Small-Scale Societies

Becoming the Solution

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