Posts
Science writer Nicholas Wade has investigated the current state of knowledge of anthropology, which has now incorporated findings from DNA analysis. The resulting book, Before the Dawn: Recovering the lost history of our ancestors, sharply challenges romantic notions of peace and harmony among pre-historic civilisations.
Rousseau's Noble Savage is French toast.
Wade presents compelling evidence that humans appear to be genetically predisposed to warfare. Among ancient hunter-gatherers, "incessant warfare" was the norm, just as it is today among the Stone Age tribes of New Guinea and South America. Humans have a long history of cannibalism, so much that we carry genes to guard against the toxic consequences of eating human flesh (similar to Mad Cow prion disease). Modern humans are less aggressive than our ancestors were. The very fact that we can live in mass societies at reasonable peace with each other is an extraordinary advance.
This is a bombshell for politically correct beliefs that indigenous American cultures lived at peace with the land and each other before the nasty Europeans arrived.
h/t: Faith-Science News
Previous related posts:
