Understanding Warfare: An Evolutionary Approach

A lecture presented in conjunction with the Peabody Museum exhibition "Arts of War: Artistry in Weapons across Cultures."
Warfare is a nearly universal trait of human societies. It has influenced the evolution of human societies at least since the dawn of history, and may have influenced the evolution of human psychology. By some definitions, warfare is uniquely human; no other species engages in armed combat using manufactured weapons. But in other respects, human warfare bears much in common with intergroup aggression in a range of species, from ants to chimpanzees. Michael Wilson will discuss how an evolutionary perspective on warfare can help shed light on why people fight and what they can do to make war less likely to occur.
Speaker: Michael L. Wilson, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota