Once upon a war
Archeologists have recently uncovered evidence of what may be the oldest known incident of warfare among humans. Dating back to around 10,000 years ago, the remains found on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya are also significant because they belong to a hunter-gatherer society rather than to settled agricultural peoples. Archeologists and anthropologists have long believed that because hunter-gatherer societies are relatively egalitarian, they are also less violent. The discovery in Kenya may compel them to revisit that theory.
The human remains, consisting of 27 skeletons, were found at Nataruk on the southwestern edge of Lake Turkana by a team of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge. The condition of the remains tell the …show more content…
In an interview with LiveScience, archeologist Robert Foley, who co-authored a report published by the research team in the journal Nature, said: "That scale of death — it can't be an individual murder or homicide amongst families. It was a result of some intergroup conflict."
(http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7586/full/nature16477.html)
The site at Nataruk has been a rich one for archeologists, since the sediments on the lake bed preserve fossils and human remains in good condition. It is one of the two locations for the five-year In Africa project, which seeks to understand human origins and evolution.
As well as debates about the nature of hunter-gatherer societies and whether they too experienced inter-group warfare, the find has rekindled speculation about whether violence is intrinsic to human nature. Foley believes that violence and altruism might both be inherent in humans, as two sides of the same coin. Taking this one step further, it could be speculated that both violence and altruism are tied to group identity, and to cultural teachings which tell humans whom it is necessary to hate and whom to
Archeologists have recently uncovered evidence of what may be the oldest known incident of warfare among humans. Dating back to around 10,000 years ago, the remains found on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya are also significant because they belong to a hunter-gatherer society rather than to settled agricultural peoples. Archeologists and anthropologists have long believed that because hunter-gatherer societies are relatively egalitarian, they are also less violent. The discovery in Kenya may compel them to revisit that theory.
The human remains, consisting of 27 skeletons, were found at Nataruk on the southwestern edge of Lake Turkana by a team of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge. The condition of the remains tell the …show more content…
In an interview with LiveScience, archeologist Robert Foley, who co-authored a report published by the research team in the journal Nature, said: "That scale of death — it can't be an individual murder or homicide amongst families. It was a result of some intergroup conflict."
(http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7586/full/nature16477.html)
The site at Nataruk has been a rich one for archeologists, since the sediments on the lake bed preserve fossils and human remains in good condition. It is one of the two locations for the five-year In Africa project, which seeks to understand human origins and evolution.
As well as debates about the nature of hunter-gatherer societies and whether they too experienced inter-group warfare, the find has rekindled speculation about whether violence is intrinsic to human nature. Foley believes that violence and altruism might both be inherent in humans, as two sides of the same coin. Taking this one step further, it could be speculated that both violence and altruism are tied to group identity, and to cultural teachings which tell humans whom it is necessary to hate and whom to