Synopses & Reviews
In
The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence, renowned anthropologist Douglas P. Fry shows how anthropology--with its expansive time frame and comparative orientation--can provide unique insights into the nature of war and the potential for peace. Challenging the traditional view that humans are by nature primarily violent and warlike, Professor Fry argues that along with the capacity for aggression humans also possess a strong ability to prevent, limit, and resolve conflicts without violence. Raising philosophy of science issues, the author shows that cultural beliefs asserting the inevitability of violence and war can bias our interpretations, affect our views of ourselves, and may even blind us to the possibility of achieving security without war. Fry draws on data from cultural anthropology, archaeology, and sociology as well as from behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology to construct a biosocial argument that challenges a host of commonly held assumptions.
The Human Potential for Peace includes ethnographic examples from around the globe, findings from Fry's research among the Zapotec of Mexico, and results of cross-cultural studies on warfare. In showing that conflict resolution exists across cultures and by documenting the existence of numerous peaceful societies, it demonstrates that dealing with conflict without violence is not merely a utopian dream. The book also explores several highly publicized and interesting controversies, including Freeman's critique of Margaret Mead's writings on Samoan warfare; Napoleon Chagnon's claims about the Yanomamö; and ongoing evolutionary debates about whether "hunter-gatherers" are peaceful or warlike. The Human Potential for Peace is ideal for undergraduate courses in political and legal anthropology, the anthropology of peace and conflict, peace studies, political sociology, and the sociology of war and violence. Written in an informal style with numerous entertaining examples, the book is also readily accessible to general readers.
Review
"The Human Potential for Peace is a real achievement, the first systematic book of its kind, and a welcome part of the anthropological literature. I especially liked the sweep of the book, which broadly covers both the history of aggression as well as the ethnographic record, moving forward to contemporary society and applied implications."--Thomas A. Gregor, Professor of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University
"This is an important book, and a serious one, although it is enlivened with a number of anecdotes and personal reminiscences. The book has great strengths, including breadth of scholarship in different areas, as well as a critical depth in tackling some common assumptions and cited conclusions."--Peter K. Smith, Department of Psychology, University College London
Read the full review here.
"Amongst the various anthropological texts that have emerged over the last decade, this is clearly one of the most important. At a time when practitioners in the social sciences continue to haggle over the relative merits of interdisciplinary approaches, of paradigm shifts, and of the role of war and peace in human endeavors, this book strikes a relevant chord. Douglas Fry reminds us that in the human experience it is neither solely nature nor nurture, neither aggression nor camaraderie, rather it is a complex synthesis of human endeavors resulting in a clear and resounding potential for peace."--Agustín Fuentes, Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame
Read the full review here.
Synopsis
In The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence, renowned anthropologist Douglas P. Fry shows how anthropology--with its expansive time frame and comparative orientation--can provide unique insights into the nature of war and the potential for peace. Challenging the traditional view that humans are by nature primarily violent and warlike, Professor Fry argues that along with the capacity for aggression humans also possess a strong ability to prevent, limit, and resolve conflicts without violence. Raising philosophy of science issues, the author shows that cultural beliefs asserting the inevitability of violence and war can bias our interpretations, affect our views of ourselves, and may even blind us to the possibility of achieving security without war. Fry draws on data from cultural anthropology, archaeology, and sociology as well as from behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology to construct a biosocial argument that challenges a host of commonly held assumptions.
The Human Potential for Peace includes ethnographic examples from around the globe, findings from Fry's research among the Zapotec of Mexico, and results of cross-cultural studies on warfare. In showing that conflict resolution exists across cultures and by documenting the existence of numerous peaceful societies, it demonstrates that dealing with conflict without violence is not merely a utopian dream. The book also explores several highly publicized and interesting controversies, including Freeman's critique of Margaret Mead's writings on Samoan warfare; Napoleon Chagnon's claims about the Yanomamo; and ongoing evolutionary debates about whether "hunter-gatherers" are peaceful or warlike. The Human Potential for Peace is ideal for undergraduate courses in political and legal anthropology, the anthropology of peace and conflict, peace studies, political sociology, and the sociology of war and violence. Written in an informal style with numerous entertaining examples, the book is also readily accessible to general readers.
Synopsis
In this captivating book, renowned anthropologist Douglas P. Fry shows how anthropology can provide unique insights into the nature of war and the potential for peace. Challenging the traditional view that humans are by nature primarily violent and warlike, Professor Fry argues that along with
the capacity for aggression humans also possess a strong ability to prevent, limit, and resolve conflicts without violence. Raising philosophy of science issues, the author shows that cultural beliefs asserting the inevitability of violence and war can bias our interpretations, affect our views of
ourselves, and may even blind us to the possibility of achieving security without war. Fry draws on data from cultural anthropology, archaeology, and sociology as well as from behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology to construct a biosocial argument that challenges a host of commonly held
assumptions.
The Human Potential for Peace includes ethnographic examples from around the globe, findings from Fry's research among the Zapotec of Mexico, and results of cross-cultural studies on warfare. In showing that conflict resolution exists across cultures and by documenting the existence of numerous
peaceful societies, it demonstrates that dealing with conflict without violence is not merely a utopian dream.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Robert A. HindePreface
1. Questioning the War Assumption
A Preview of Coming Attractions
2. The Peace System of the Upper Xingu
A Peace System
Social Organization
3. Taken for Granted: The Human Potential for Peace
Avoidance
Toleration
Negotiation
Settlement
Cultural Beliefs and Aggression Prevention
Points to Highlight
4. Making the Invisible Visible: Belief Systems in San Andrés and La Paz
So Near and Yet So Far
Different Learning Environments
Multicausality and Multidimensionality
Some Broader Implications
5. The Cross-Cultural Peacefulness-Aggressiveness Continuum
A Peacefulness-Aggressiveness Continuum
Growing Interest in Peaceful Societies
Peaceful Societies: Not Such a Rare Breed After All
6. Peace Stories
The Semai of Malaysia
Ifaluk of Micronesia
Norwegians: A Nation at Peace
Returning to Hidden Assumptions
7. A Hobbesian Belief System? On the Supposed Naturalness of War
Warfare and Feuding from a Cross-Cultural Perspective
Nonwarring Cultures
8. Social Organization Matters!
Types of Social Organization
The Link betwen Warfare and Social Organization
Social Organization and Seeking Justice
Implications
9. Paradise Denied: A Bizarre Case of Skullduggery
The Unmaking of the Myth-Weaver
10. Re-Creating the Past in Our Own Image
Assumptions Come Tumbling Down
The Earliest Evidence of War
11. Cultural Projections
12. Aboriginal Australia: A Continent of Unwarlike Hunter-Gatherers
The Paucity of Warfare
Conflict Management
Summing Up
13. War-Laden Scenarios of the Past: Uncovering a Heap of Faulty Assumptions
Making the Implicit Explicit
The Patrilineal-Patrilocal Assumption
The Assumption of the Tight-Knit, Bounded Group
The Assumption of Pervasively Hostile Interband Relations
14. More Faulty Assumptions
The Assumption of Warring over Scarce Resources
The Assumption of Warring over Land
The Assumption of Warring over Women
The Assumption of Leadership
Summing Up
15. Much Ado about the Yanomamö
The Famous Yanomamö Unokais
Broader Issues
Methodological and Analytical Issues: Questioning the "Obvious"
The Heart of the Matter
Why So Much Ado?
16. Windows to the Past: Conflict Management Case Studies
Siriono
Montagnais-Naskapi
Paliyan
Netsilik Inuit
Ju/'hoansi
Lessons from the Case Studies
17. Untangling War from Interpersonal Aggression
Natural Selection
Natural Environments and the EEA Concept
"Flexible" Adapatations, Sexual Selection, and Sex Differences in Aggression
The Costs and Benefits of Aggression to Individual Fitness
Inclusive Fitness
18. An Alternative Evolutionary Perspective: The Nomadic Forager Model
Human Hawks, Doves, and Retaliators
Costs and Benefits of Aggression
Restraint
Inclusive Fitness
Assessing the Overall Patterns and Recurring Themes
Warring as an Adaption? The Twin Problems of Confusing Function with Effect and Aggression with Warfare
Conclusions
19. Weighing the Evidence
20. Enhancing Peace
A Macroscopic Perspective: The Human Capacity to Move beyond War
Specific Insights for Keeping the Peace
Conclusions
Appendix: Organizations to Contact
Notes
References
Index