Violence: Finding Peace

Abstract

In the News Story “The battle over violence” (Special Section on Human Conflict, A. Lawler, 18 May, p. [829][1]), Steven Pinker asserts that peace anthropologists, whom he calls “anthropologists for peace,” inaccurately portray small groups as more peaceful than they are ([ 1 ][2]). His accusation is unfounded. The term “peace anthropologist” refers to ethnographers who try to understand how people maintain peace. Some of us are pacifists; most are not. The field did not begin by looking for peaceable peoples. The first five modern investigators to study east Semai, for example, did not look for peaceability, but found it anyway ([ 2 ][3]–[ 6 ][4]). When ethnographers say that certain types of foragers and a few swiddeners led relatively peaceful lives, the statement is empirical, not ideological. Many ethnographic surveys of peaceable peoples are available [e.g., ([ 7 ][5], [ 8 ][6])]. Paleoanthropologists agree that the earliest human ancestors adapted to lifestyles that stressed nonviolence, tendencies that manifested anatomically, such as in the shrinkage of male canines, which anthropoids typically use to fight over females—the main cause of violence in small acephalous human groupings ([ 9 ][7]). Computer simulation suggests that small egalitarian groups (characteristic of human ancestors and peaceable peoples today) survive if they avoid violence better than if they practice it ([ 10 ][8]). Peace anthropologists are not pushing an agenda. They are merely gathering data and drawing the best conclusions they can. 1. [↵][9] 1. S. Pinker , The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking, New York, 2011). 2. [↵][10] 1. G. Benjamin , thesis, Cambridge University (1967). 3. 1. R. Dentan , thesis, Yale University (1965). 4. 1. A. G. Fix , “The Demography of the Semai Senoi” (Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor, MI, 1977). 5. 1. K. Stewart , thesis, London School of Economics (1948). 6. [↵][11] 1. H. Noone , J. Fed. Malay States Museums 19, 1 (1936). [OpenUrl][12] 7. [↵][13] 1. B. Bonta , Peaceful Peoples: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, London, 1993). 8. [↵][14] 1. D. Fry , The Human Potential for Peace (Oxford, New York, 2006). 9. [↵][15] 1. C. O. Lovejoy , Science 326, 74 (2009). [OpenUrl][16][Abstract/FREE Full Text][17] 10. [↵][18] 1. S. Younger , Leadership, Violence, and Warfare in Small Societies: A Simulation Approach (Los Alamos National Lab/Univ. of Hawaii, Los Alamos/Manoa, 2004). [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.336.6083.829 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #ref-6 [5]: #ref-7 [6]: #ref-8 [7]: #ref-9 [8]: #ref-10 [9]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [10]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [11]: #xref-ref-6-1 View reference 6 in text [12]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DJ.%2BFed.%2BMalay%2BStates%2BMuseums%26rft.volume%253D19%26rft.spage%253D1%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [13]: #xref-ref-7-1 View reference 7 in text [14]: #xref-ref-8-1 View reference 8 in text [15]: #xref-ref-9-1 View reference 9 in text [16]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DScience%26rft.stitle%253DScience%26rft.issn%253D0036-8075%26rft.aulast%253DLovejoy%26rft.auinit1%253DC.%2BO.%26rft.volume%253D326%26rft.issue%253D5949%26rft.spage%253D74%26rft.epage%253D74%252C%2B74e1-74e8%26rft.atitle%253DReexamining%2BHuman%2BOrigins%2Bin%2BLight%2Bof%2BArdipithecus%2Bramidus%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1126%252Fscience.1175834%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [17]: /lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6Mzoic2NpIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjExOiIzMjYvNTk0OS83NCI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjI0OiIvc2NpLzMzOC82MTA1LzMyNy4xLmF0b20iO31zOjg6ImZyYWdtZW50IjtzOjA6IiI7fQ== [18]: #xref-ref-10-1 View reference 10 in text