The classic opening scene of 2001, A Space Odyssey shows an ape-man wreaking havoc with humanity's first invention--a bone used as a weapon to kill a rival. It's an image that fits well with popular notions of our species as inherently violent, with the idea that humans are--and always have been--wa
Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace
β Scribed by Douglas P. Fry
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Leaves
- 352
- Category
- Library
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
β¦ Synopsis
Not so long ago, the institution of slavery was accepted by most people and women were considered too "dumb" to vote. Today a popular misconception is that human beings are inherently violent and that war has been and always will be with us. However, as "Beyond War" illustrates, war is not in
our genes. We can choose peace.
Just as Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" helped to depose the institution of slavery by shining a spotlight on faulty assumptions upon which it was based, Professor Douglas Fry has knocked the props out from under the erroneous assumptions that help justify the institution of war.
With an impressive wealth of data from ethnological studies and the archaeological record, "Beyond
War" pops the hot air balloons of those primatologists (Wrangham), and other war-fogged scholars (Lorenz, LeBlanc) who would have us believe that humans were territorial killers from the get-go. Every high school and college student, as well as concerned adult, should be exposed to the truths
set out clearly in this very absorbing book.
If our species doesn't commit suicide based on falsehoods in the next century or so, history will record that Douglas Fry helped to topple the institution of war by his insightful expose of the facts. With their more informed perspective, our descendants will condemn us for accepting the horrors of war just as we are shocked by those who perpetuated slavery. Don't miss reading this eye-opening classic.
β¦ Table of Contents
0195309480......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Foreword......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
Acknowledgments......Page 18
1 Charting a New Direction......Page 22
2 Do Nonwarring Societies Actually Exist?......Page 31
3 Overlooked and Underappreciated: The Human Potential for Peace......Page 42
4 Killer Apes, Cannibals, and Coprolites: Projecting Mayhem onto the Past......Page 54
5 The Earliest Evidence of War......Page 71
6 War and Social Organization: From Nomadic Bands to Modern States......Page 86
7 Seeking Justice: The Quest for Fairness......Page 102
8 Man the Warrior: Fact or Fantasy?......Page 121
9 Insights from the Outback: Geneva Conventions in the Australian Bush......Page 134
10 Void if Detached β¦ from Reality: Australian "Warriors," YanomamΓΆ Unokais, and Lethal Raiding Psychology......Page 152
11 Returning to the Evidence: Life in the Band......Page 169
12 Darwin Got It Right: Sex Differences in Aggression......Page 187
13 A New Evolutionary Perspective: The Nomadic Forager Model......Page 196
14 Setting the Record Straight......Page 214
15 A Macroscopic Anthropological View......Page 222
16 Enhancing Peace......Page 234
Appendix 1: Organizations to Contact......Page 256
Appendix 2: Nonwarring Societies......Page 258
Notes......Page 260
Suggested Reading......Page 343
A......Page 344
C......Page 345
F......Page 346
H......Page 347
L......Page 348
P......Page 349
S......Page 350
W......Page 351
Z......Page 352
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