New Study of Foragers Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network

• The “killer ape” scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 – A Space Odyssey has no basis in fact.

. . . war is a cultural “invention”—in modern lingo, a meme, that can arise in any society, from the simplest to the most complex. Once it arises, war often becomes self-perpetuating, with attacks by one group provoking reprisals and pre-emptive attacks by others.

The war meme also transforms societies, militarizes them, in ways that make war more likely. The Tiwi seem to be a society that has embraced war as a way of life. So is the United States of America.

via New Study of Foragers Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network.