Human Potential for Peace

"The Human Potential for Peace is a real achievement, the first systematic book of its kind, and a welcome part of the anthropological literature. I especially liked the sweep of the book, which broadly covers both the history of aggression as well as the ethnographic record, moving forward to contemporary society and applied implications."--Thomas A. Gregor, Professor of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University"This is an important book, and a serious one, although it is enlivened with a number of anecdotes and personal reminiscences. The book has great strengths, including breadth of scholarship in different areas, as well as a critical depth in tackling some common assumptions and cited conclusions."--Peter K. Smith, Department of Psychology, University College London a href=" http://www.israsociety.com/bulletin/isradec2005.pdf "Read the full review here."Amongst the various anthropological texts that have emerged over the last decade, this is clearly one of the most important. At a time when practitioners in the social sciences continue to haggle over the relative merits of interdisciplinary approaches, of paradigm shifts, and of the role of war and peace in human endeavors, this book strikes a relevant chord. Douglas Fry reminds us that in the human experience it is neither solely nature nor nurture, neitheraggression nor camaraderie, rather it is a complex synthesis of human endeavors resulting in a clear and resounding potential for peace."--Agustín Fuentes, Department of Anthropology, University ofNotre Dame a href=" http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/NAR/051222gen.html"Read the full review here."The Human Potential for Peace is a real achievement, the first systematic book of its kind, and a welcome part of the anthropological literature. I especially liked the sweep of the book, which broadly covers both the history of aggression as well as the ethnographic record, moving forward to contemporary society and applied implications."--Thomas A. Gregor, Professor of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University"This is an important book, and a serious one, although it is enlivened with a number of anecdotes and personal reminiscences. The book has great strengths, including breadth of scholarship in different areas, as well as a critical depth in tackling some common assumptions and cited conclusions."--Peter K. Smith, Department of Psychology, University College London a href=" http://www.israsociety.com/bulletin/isradec2005.pdf "Read the full review here."Amongst the various anthropological texts that have emerged over the last decade, this is clearly one of the most important. At a time when practitioners in the social sciences continue to haggle over the relative merits of interdisciplinary approaches, of paradigm shifts, and of the role of war and peace in human endeavors, this book strikes a relevant chord. Douglas Fry reminds us that in the human experience it is neither solely nature nor nurture, neitheraggression nor camaraderie, rather it is a complex synthesis of human endeavors resulting in a clear and resounding potential for peace."--Agustín Fuentes, Department of Anthropology, University ofNotre Dame a href=" http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/NAR/051222gen.html"Read the full review here.

• Foreword by Robert A. Hinde: Preface: 1. Questioning the War Assumption A Preview of Coming Attractions 2. The Peace System of the Upper Xingu A Peace System Social Organization 3. Taken for Granted: The Human Potential for Peace Avoidance Toleration Negotiation Settlement Cultural Beliefs and Aggression Prevention Points to Highlight 4. Making the Invisible Visible: Belief Systems in San Andrés and La Paz So Near and Yet So Far Different Learning Environments Multicausality and Multidimensionality Some Broader Implications 5. The Cross-Cultural Peacefulness-Aggressiveness Continuum A Peacefulness-Aggressiveness Continuum Growing Interest in Peaceful Societies Peaceful Societies: Not Such a Rare Breed After All 6. Peace Stories The Semai of Malaysia Ifaluk of Micronesia Norwegians: A Nation at Peace Returning to Hidden Assumptions 7. A Hobbesian Belief System? On the Supposed Naturalness of War Warfare and Feuding from a Cross-Cultural Perspective Nonwarring Cultures 8. Social Organization Matters! Types of Social Organization The Link betwen Warfare and Social Organization Social Organization and Seeking Justice Implications 9. Paradise Denied: A Bizarre Case of Skullduggery The Unmaking of the Myth-Weaver 10. Re-Creating the Past in Our Own Image Assumptions Come Tumbling Down The Earliest Evidence of War 11. Cultural Projections 12. Aboriginal Australia: A Continent of Unwarlike Hunter-Gatherers The Paucity of Warfare Conflict Management Summing Up 13. War-Laden Scenarios of the Past: Uncovering a Heap of Faulty Assumptions Making the Implicit Explicit The Patrilineal-Patrilocal Assumption The Assumption of the Tight-Knit, Bounded Group The Assumption of Pervasively Hostile Interband Relations 14. More Faulty Assumptions The Assumption of Warring over Scarce Resources The Assumption of Warring over Land The Assumption of Warring over Women The Assumption of Leadership Summing Up 15. Much Ado about the Yanomamö The Famous Yanomamö Unokais Broader Issues Methodological and Analytical Issues: Questioning the "Obvious" The Heart of the Matter Why So Much Ado? 16. Windows to the Past: Conflict Management Case Studies Siriono Montagnais-Naskapi Paliyan Netsilik Inuit Ju/'hoansi Lessons from the Case Studies 17. Untangling War from Interpersonal Aggression Natural Selection Natural Environments and the EEA Concept "Flexible" Adapatations, Sexual Selection, and Sex Differences in Aggression The Costs and Benefits of Aggression to Individual Fitness Inclusive Fitness 18. An Alternative Evolutionary Perspective: The Nomadic Forager Model Human Hawks, Doves, and Retaliators Costs and Benefits of Aggression Restraint Inclusive Fitness Assessing the Overall Patterns and Recurring Themes Warring as an Adaption? The Twin Problems of Confusing Function with Effect and Aggression with Warfare Conclusions 19. Weighing the Evidence 20. Enhancing Peace A Macroscopic Perspective: The Human Capacity to Move beyond War Specific Insights for Keeping the Peace Conclusions Appendix: Organizations to Contact: Notes: References: Index: