Resource Competition and Human Aggression, Part I: A Review of Primitive War

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Abstract
The relationship between biological and cultural evolution is of major importance to the study of human ecology and social behavior. To an important and generally unrecognized extent, culture may evolve by the selective retention of non-genetic traits that enhance the ability of individual human beings to survive and reproduce in a given environment. This implies that biological and cultural evolution may be truly complementary. If so, it makes no sense to view biological and cultural adaptations as independent phenomena or to assert that all forms of adaptation result from natural selection. The possible coevolution of human biology and culture has important implications for understanding human behavior. To assess the validity of a coevolutionary approach to human behavior, a favorite topic of the biology vs. culture, instinct vs. learning controversy is reconsidered: intergroup aggression. A model is proposed to account for the presence or absence of intergroup aggression resulting from resource competition between human social groups. From combined measures of resource deprivation and relative capability, the model predicts conditions where aggressive intergroup behavior would have a net benefit for the survival and reproduction of the individual aggressors despite its inherent costs. These predictions are compared with several examples in a review of war and peace among small, stateless human societies. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that individuals maximize their survival and reproduction by living in social groups and participating in collective aggression when access to scarce resources is at stake. Aggressive intergroup behavior may often be adaptive for individuals under conditions of resource competition and this may help to explain the prevalence of warfare among human societies.

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