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Cited by 773Language and cultural evolutionEvolutionary Game Theory and CooperationPleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 44 of the 44 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Did Warfare Among Ancestral Hunter-Gatherers Affect the Evolution of Human Social Behaviors?

Bowles, Samuel·2009·Science
DOI 10.1126/science.1168112
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Abstract

War and Peace?: Modern behavior, including the development of advanced tools, musical instruments, and art, seems to have arisen in humans in stages. The earliest hints are seen in Africa about 70 to 90,000 years ago, but later in Europe about 45,000 years ago. An ongoing discussion centers on the origins and significance of human prosociality. During early human development, could the benefits of altruistic behavior have outweighed its costs (see the Perspective by Mace )? Bowles (p. 1293 ) constructed a model of conflict between groups of humans and extracted estimates of the critical parameters from archaeological and ethnographic data sets. Provocatively, it appears that warfare might have enhanced the emergence and persistence of altruistic behavior. Powell et al. (p. 1298 ) present a population model that shows that the development of modern behaviors may rely on the attainment of critical population densities and migratory patterns required for stable cultural transmission. The model is consistent with genetic inferences of population dynamics in Africa and Europe and suggests that these cultural changes may not solely reflect increased cognitive evolution.

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Research works printed but not linked: 11

  1. S. A. LeBlanc Constant Battles (St. Martins Press New York 2003).
  2. B. Ferguson in Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past D. L. Martin D. W. Frayer Eds. (Gordon & Breach Amsterdam 1997) pp. 321–354.
  3. V. Formicola, Curr. Anthropol., 48, 646 (2007).
  4. P. Lambert in Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past D. L. Martin D. W. Frayer Eds. (Gordon & Breach Amsterdam 1997) pp. 77–109.
  5. J. Morgan The Life and Adventures of William Buckley: Thirty-Two Years a Wanderer Amongst the Aborigines [Australia National Univ. Press (first published 1852) Canberra 1979].
  6. Melbye J., Fairgrieve S., Arctic Anthropol. 31, 57 (1994).
  7. I. Schapera The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa (Routledge & Kegan Paul London 1930).
  8. H. Lourandos Continent of Hunter-Gatherers (Cambridge Univ. Press Cambridge 1997).
  9. M. N. Cohen in Biosocial Mechanisms of Population Regulation M. N. Cohen R. S. Malpass H. G. Klein Eds. (Yale Univ. Press New Haven CT 1980) pp. 275–303.
  10. F. A. Hassan in Biosocial Mechanisms of Population Regulation M. N. Cohen R. S. Malpass H. G. Klein Eds. (Yale Univ. Press New Haven CT 1980) pp. 305–319.
  11. F. Wendorf Prehistory of Nubia (Southern Methodist Univ. Press Dallas TX 1968).

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Metadata

Authors
Bowles, S.
Affiliations
University of Siena (IT)
Corresponding author
Bowles, Samuel
ORCID
Bowles, Samuel
Venue
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Published
2009-06-05
Volume
324
Issue
5932
Pages
1293-1298
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
DOI
10.1126/science.1168112
OpenAlex
W1984807806
Cited by
773
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 27 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 65 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 56 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 50 · 2015: 47 · 2014: 53 · 2013: 52 · 2012: 37
FWCI
896.98
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Keywords
war, hunter-gatherers, prosocial behavior, altruism, cultural evolution, cultural transmission, population density, migration, group conflict, Africa, Europe
MeSH terms
Altruism, Anthropology, Cultural, Archaeology, Cooperative Behavior, Cultural Evolution, Biological Evolution, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Theoretical, Social Behavior, Genetic Variation, Warfare, Microsatellite Repeats

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