Book contents
- Reviews
- The Origins of War and Peace in the Human Species
- The Origins of War and Peace in the Human Species
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Nature and Nurture
- 2 Across the Animal Kingdom
- 3 Chimpanzees and Bonobos
- 4 Nomads of War and Peace I
- 5 Nomads of War and Peace II
- 6 The Last Common Ancestor and Beyond
- 7 Janus-Faced
- 8 Feedback Loops
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Intergroup Lethal Conflict and Group Hunting across Species
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Across the Animal Kingdom
Why and How to Compare Species
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2026
Book contents
- Reviews
- The Origins of War and Peace in the Human Species
- The Origins of War and Peace in the Human Species
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Nature and Nurture
- 2 Across the Animal Kingdom
- 3 Chimpanzees and Bonobos
- 4 Nomads of War and Peace I
- 5 Nomads of War and Peace II
- 6 The Last Common Ancestor and Beyond
- 7 Janus-Faced
- 8 Feedback Loops
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Intergroup Lethal Conflict and Group Hunting across Species
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter outlines the cross-species comparative method used to investigate the evolutionary origins of war and peace. It explains how comparing humans with other species – particularly chimpanzees and bonobos – can help identify whether intergroup lethal conflict and peaceful cooperation are ancestral traits inherited from a last common ancestor or evolutionary innovations in the hominin lineage. It also introduces archaeological and ethnographic methods to infer intergroup behaviours in prehistory. By combining approaches from evolutionary biology, archaeology, and ethnography, this chapter establishes an interdisciplinary toolkit for assessing when war and peace first emerged.
Keywords
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- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Origins of War and Peace in the Human Species , pp. 34 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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