Scientists say warfare began after people formed villages

[starroute]

A few weeks ago, there was a thread on whether it would ever be possible to put an end to war. I posted saying that warfare was not a permanent aspect of human nature but was the product of specific historical and economic factors. At the time, I didn't have an online source to back this up, but here's an article from today's paper on some new research about this exact point:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001731067_war16.html

From ancient Troy to today's Iraq, warfare forms the backdrop of human history. But anthropologists, archaeologists and other scholars tend to disagree on war's origins: Some see it as an ailment of civilization and others say it has deeper roots.

Two anthropologists from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, suggest that although people could have come into conflict before civilization, archaeological remains of burning homes, fleeing refugees and slain captives show simple raids steadily maturing into full-scale warfare as humans settled into villages and society became more stratified.

Their report appears in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In their study, Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus examined the past 10,000 years of Mexico's Oaxaca (wah-HA-ka) Valley. Until Native American village life began there, even with corn's domestication around 5,400 years ago, no evidence of warfare emerges from the region.

But researchers find signs of dwellings burned in raids from 3,500 years ago, when settled life began.


(As I recall, Kent Flannery is the leading expert on the process of domestication of corn in Mexico and an extremely respected figure. I hope this study gets the attention it deserves.)

[JackSwift]

1. Article seems to beg the question

and to be conclusions drawn to support a point of view.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

2. Once you have seen footage of...

two troops of monkeys battle for territory, your questions will be answered. War is natural and intstinctual. Now if only we could overcome this instinct as we do so many others.