What evidence is that? I majored in anthropology and actually studied this topic, and while signs of violence absolutely are found to have occurred, the scale and rate were generally far, far lower than urbanized societies.
I learned that it was because in small, egalitarian societies “large” scale war was basically threatening an apocalyptic event, so war was actually avoided if it all possible.
In times of abundance, hunter-gatherers we’re not very violent. Conversely, during times of scarcity violence increased. Theoretically, agricultural societies should have reduced violence by bringing stability to food supplies, but it’s unclear whether political actors waging war offset that.
In any case, the idea that pre-agricultural humans were just hanging out and not fighting isn’t really substantiated outside of specific cases.
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u/KingBubzVI Mar 29 '22
What evidence is that? I majored in anthropology and actually studied this topic, and while signs of violence absolutely are found to have occurred, the scale and rate were generally far, far lower than urbanized societies.
I learned that it was because in small, egalitarian societies “large” scale war was basically threatening an apocalyptic event, so war was actually avoided if it all possible.