Warless Societies and the Origin of War (Paperback)

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Product Description

Warless Societies and the Origin of War employs a comparative ethnographic analysis of warless and warlike hunting and gathering societies to isolate distinctive features of peaceful preagricultural people and to develop a theoretical model of the origin of war and the early coevolution of war and society. Examining key Upper Paleolithic cave paintings and burials that document lethal violence, Raymond Kelly's illumination of the transition from warlessness to warfare in several specific locales in Europe and the Middle East confounds understandings of the origin of war prevalent today.
Kelly addresses fundamental questions concerning the trinity of interrelationship between human nature, war, and the constitution of society: Is war a primordial and pervasive feature of human existence or a set of practices that arose at a certain time in our recent prehistoric past? Are there peaceful societies in which war is absent and, if so, what are they like and how do they differ from warlike societies? Do the critical differentiating features pertain to child-rearing practices, to modes of conflict resolution, to social and economic inequality, to resource competition, or to the constitution of social groups?
As the conclusions of such an inquiry are central to our conceptions of human nature, the book will interest a wide range of readers, from those curious about the origins of collective violence to those studying the roles social institutions play in society.
Raymond C. Kelly is Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472067389
• ISBN-13: 978-0472067381
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,063,178 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent theory of the origin of war, October 25, 2005

By	Stephen M. Younger - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an outstanding reference for those seeking to understand how war came about and especially whether all societies were and are prone to war. Kelley presents a rigorously logical exposition of the notion that war is relatively recent and a result of social organization. All societies kill, but only those that are segmented and labeled appear to engage in large scale planned violence. Sometimes his conclusions are counterintuitive - as when he argues that, rather than scarcity, it is abundance that leads to war: "...it is under the latter circumstances that that a society can afford to have enemies for neighbors." While the prose can be somewhat dry at times, the reader is rewarded with numerous thought-provoking insights that are missing in watered down accounts of war intended for the general audience.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dry but interesing content, April 21, 2003

By	César González Rouco (Madrid, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I agree with the previous review in its critic: the book is arid. I could not finish it: I started with the first forty pages and I jumped till the end. Books are to be read: if they are deadly boring, nobody will read them, therefore they will be used for nothing.

However, I had the feeling that the author, in order to defend his ideas, has taken great pains to define precisely the term "war" and to construe a statistical base of warfare in primitive societies. So I am no expert to judge whether his thesis are right or wrong, but at least, he did it in a scientific way. Stadistics are similar to a laser knife in modern surgery: it alone does not save lifes, but without it, no way.

Other books written in a far more interesting way that I would recommend to read are the followingOther books on war that I would recommend would be:

- above all, the best, "War on Human Civilization" by Azar Gat;
- also, "War before Civilization. The Myth of the Peaceful Savage", by Lawrence Keeley; "How War Began" by Keith F. Otterbein; and "War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires" by Peter Turchin.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable study, July 26, 2007

By	moose/squirrel (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warless Societies and the Origin of War (Hardcover)

First let me say that the four stars are for the content rather than the readability of this book, which is aimed at other professional anthropologists. It is a very valuable study, very much in line with the recent works of Lawrence Kelley ("War Before Civilization")and Keith F. Otterbein ("How War Began")and other scholars.

The good news is that contrary to the "killer ape theory" of forty years ago, modern anthropological analyses prove that the human race has no genetically transmitted "instinct" to wage war. Humans share with chimps a genetic tendency toward aggression. But "aggression" does not always equal war. Kelly emphasizes that although nonliterate societies can and do wage deadly wars, there is little evidence for war in the very early prehistory of Homo sapiens. This seems to show that, in theory at least, war is not an ineradicable form of human behavior. It results from social forces and not from our DNA.

The bad news is that Kelly's prose is, as other reviewers have said, typically dry and academic. Fortunately it isn't laden with impenetrable jargon. It's just very tedious in the way that too many professional publications are. If Kelly had made the book friendlier for the general reader, I'd have given it five stars.