The Inuit and the evolution of limited group conflict

Abstract

From an examination of the archaeological and ethnographic record Bigelow (1969) and Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1979) draw the conclusion that the human behaviour we call war is and has been a universal human trait perhaps as old as Homo sapiens.* Bigelow (1969), in his book The Dawn Warriors, goes so far as to suggest that many of man’s so called advanced facultative skills evolved specifically to enhance man’s warring skills, as war, Bigelow suggests, was adaptive. The advent of nuclear weapons may have irrevocably changed the cost to benefit ratio of warring behaviour. So long as there were some winners then war may have been adaptive but when there are only losers the behaviour of war ceases to have any adaptive advantages. How will this change in the cost to benefit ratio of warring behaviour be played out in evolutionary terms? Will man become extinct? Perhaps.