Aggression and Peacefulness in Humans and Other Primates

This book explores the role of aggression in primate social systems and its implications for human behavior. Many people look to primate studies to see if and how we might be able to predict violent behavior in humans, or ultimately to control war. Of particular interest in the study of primate aggression are questions such as: how do primates use aggression to maintain social organization; what are the costs of aggression; why do some primates avoid aggressive behavior altogether. Students and researchers in primatology, behavioral biology, anthropology, and psychology will read with interest as the editors and contributors to this book address these and other basic research questions about aggression. They bring new information to the topic as well as an integrated view of aggression that combines important evolutionary considerations with developmental, sociological and cultural perspectives.

This book explores the role of aggression in primate social systems and its implications for human behavior. Many people look to primate studies to see if and how we might be able to predict violent behavior in humans, or ultimately to control war. Of particular interest in the study of primate aggression are questions such as: how do primates use aggression to maintain social organization; what are the costs of aggression; why do some primates avoid aggressive behavior altogether. Students and researchers in primatology, behavioral biology, anthropology, and psychology will read with interest as the editors and contributors to this book address these and other basic research questions about aggression. They bring new information to the topic as well as an integrated view of aggression that combines important evolutionary considerations with developmental, sociological and cultural perspectives.

Violence and peacefulness as behavioral potentialities of primates; Aggression as a well-integrated part of primate social relationships; A critique of the Seville statement on violence; Dominance hierarchies as partial orders: a new look at old ideas; Determinants of aggression in squirrel monkeys; Causes and consequences of nonaggression among the woolly spider monkey or muriqui; The development of dominance relations before puberty in cercopithecene societies; Thedevelopment of agonistic and affiliative structures in preschool children; Cultures of war and peace; A comparative study of waorani and semai; The rise, maintenece and destruction of peaceable polity: a preliminary essay in political ecology; Social structure, psychocultural dispositions andviolent conflict: extensions from a cross-cultural study.