In War, Peace, and Human Nature, editor Doug Fry brings together leading experts in human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology, archeology, anthropology, and primatology to answer fundamental questions about conflict and human nature in an evolutionary context.

Foreword ; Frans B. M. de Waal ; Acknowledgments ; List of Contributors ; 1 War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Challenge of Scientific Objectivity ; Douglas P. Fry ; Section I: Ecological and Evolutionary Models ; 2 Evolution and Peace: A Janus Connection ; David P. Barash ; 3 Conflict and Restraint in Animal Species: Implications for War and Peace ; Hanna Kokko ; 4 An Ethological Perspective on War and Peace ; Peter Verbeek ; 5 Cooperation, Conflict, and Niche Construction in the genus Homo ; Agustin Fuentes ; Section II: Lessons from Prehistory: War and Peace in the Past ; 6 Why the Legend of the Killer Ape Never Dies: The Enduring Power of Cultural ; Beliefs to Distort Our View of Human Nature ; Robert W. Sussman ; 7 Pinker's List: Exaggerating Prehistoric War Mortality ; R. Brian Ferguson ; 8 Trends in Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America ; David H. Dye ; 9 From the Peaceful to the Warlike: Ethnographic and Archaeological Insights into ; Hunter-Gatherer Warfare and Homicide ; Robert Kelly ; 10 The Prehistory of Warfare: Misled by Ethnography ; Jonathan Haas & Matthew Piscitelli ; 11 The Prehistory of War and Peace in Europe and the Near East ; R. Brian Ferguson ; Section III: Nomadic Foragers: Insights about Human Nature ; 12 Peaceful Foragers: The Significance of the Batek and Moriori for the Question of ; Innate Human Violence ; Kirk Endicott ; 13 Social Control and Conflict Management among Australian Aboriginal Desert ; People Before and After the Advent of Alcohol ; Robert Tonkinson ; 14 Aggression and Conflict Resolution among the Nomadic Hadza of Tanzania as ; Compared with their Pastoralist Neighbors ; Marina L. Butovskaya ; 15 South Indian Foragers' Conflict Management in Comparative Perspective ; Peter M. Gardner ; 16 The Biocultural Evolution of Conflict Resolution between Groups ; Christopher Boehm ; 17 The 99%-Development and Socialization within an Evolutionary Context: ; Growing Up to Become a "Good and Useful Human Being" ; Darcia Narvaez ; Section IV: The Primatological Context of Human Nature ; 18 Chimpanzees, Warfare and the Invention of Peace ; Michael L. Wilson ; 19 Evolution of Primate Peace ; Frances J. White, Michel T. Waller, & Klaree J. Boose ; 20 Conflicts in Cooperative Social Interactions in Non-Human Primates ; Sarah F. Brosnan ; 21 Rousseau with a Tail: Maintaining a Tradition of Peace among Baboons ; Robert M. Sapolsky ; 22 Conflict Resolution in Non-Human Primates and Human Children ; Maaike Kempes, E. H. M. Sterck, & B. Orobio de Castro ; Section V: Taking Restraint against Killing Seriously ; 23 The Evolution of Agonism: The Triumph of Restraint in Nonhuman and Human Primates ; Douglas P. Fry & Anna Szala ; 24 Social Signaling, Conflict Management, and the Construction of Peace ; Paul ("Jim") Roscoe ; 25 The Challenge of Getting Men to Kill: A View from Military Science ; Richard J. Hughbank & Dave Grossman ; 26 Man the Singer: Song Duels as an Aggression Restraint Mechanism for ; Nonkilling Conflict Management ; Joam Evans Pim ; Section VI: Conclusions ; 27 Cooperation for Survival: Creating a Global Peace System ; Douglas P. Fry ; Index

"There can hardly be a more urgent task than to understand 'the causes of war and the potential for peace,' the guiding theme of this illuminating collection, drawing from a rich and varied array of sources. These deeply researched studies provide thoughtful and provocative insights into how we might at last be able achieve the promise of the UN Charter, 'to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,' a recent innovation in human history, and not an ineradicable curse."-Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This encyclopedic collection of excellent, wide-ranging, and myth-busting essays by renowned scholars should be required reading for anyone interested in how we came to be who we are and the future of humankind. A much-needed paradigm shift is in the making because of the increased recognition that we are not inherently destructive and competitive beings. This remarkable book will facilitate this transition as we expand our compassion footprint and give peace the chance it deserves. Cooperation, empathy, and peace will prevail if we allow them to."-Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, and The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons for Expanding Our Compassion Footprint "Douglas Fry has produced another pioneering book of the highest quality and relevance. A distinguished international and interdisciplinary group of authors address the elusive concept of human nature in relation to war and peace rigorously marshalling clear reason and hard data. Together they systematically and effectively critique the Western cultural myth of the natural inevitability of war while also demonstrating that peace rather than war is ubiquitous. Moreover, practical ways are revealed for creating a more secure and peaceful world."-Leslie E. Sponsel, author of Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution

Selling point: Advances an interdisciplinary scientific understanding of war and peace within an evolutionary context Selling point: Challenges a common assumption within evolutionary psychology and related fields that humans are warlike by nature and that war is an evolved adaptation

Douglas P. Fry, Ph.D., is Director of Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research at Åbo Akademi University in Vasa, Finland and an adjunct research scientist in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Fry is author of Beyond War (2007, Oxford) and The Human Potential for Peace (2006, Oxford).

Selling point: Advances an interdisciplinary scientific understanding of war and peace within an evolutionary context Selling point: Challenges a common assumption within evolutionary psychology and related fields that humans are warlike by nature and that war is an evolved adaptation