The Why of War and the How of Peace, Part II: Lessons from Prehistory ~ Douglas P. Fry

How old is war? Does it stretch deep into human origins, or did warfare become common only as growing populations settled down?

In Part II of this conversation with Douglas P. Fry, we return to the long-running debate about the origins of war.

Fry revisits his argument that aggression is ancient, but war is not. I put that claim to the test, raising some of the strongest objections from archaeology and the study of modern hunter-gatherers. We discuss Jebel Sahaba, nomadic and settled foragers, food storage, marine resources, population growth, and the archaeological sequences through which warfare seems to emerge in different parts of the world.

Is war an ancient adaptation—or a more recent cultural development? And is the answer relevant to our modern quest for a more peaceful world?

Enjoy!

FACT-CHECKING

No errors have been detected in this conversation. If you notice one, please get in touch via Substack or the form below.

LINKS

Fry's 2026 book: ⁠Advanced Introduction to Conflict Resolution⁠

Support: ⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠

Articles & newsletter: ⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠⁠

Get in touch: ⁠⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠⁠

Music credit: Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay.

NAMES MENTIONED

ETHNIC GROUPS AND HISTORICAL REGIONS

KEY WORDS

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(110)

The Why of War and the How of Peace, Part I: Lessons from the Modern World ~ Douglas P. Fry

History is full of wars. Why? Is war driven by fear? Greed? Revenge? Ambitious leaders? Is it rooted deep in human nature—or does it emerge only under particular social conditions? And what do we lear...

19 Juni 47min

The Big Picture: Measuring the Origins of the Modern World ~ Bishnupriya Gupta & Stephen Broadberry (Great Divergence #5)

Was India once an affluent empire, later impoverished by British colonisation? Or was India never rich to begin with? More generally, what does historical data on wages and other economic indicators t...

14 Maj 46min

A View From the East: China, Japan, and the Other Paths to Prosperity ~ Debin Ma (Great Divergence #4)

The tech gap between China and the West is closing fast. But why did the land that invented paper and gunpowder ever fall behind? Debin Ma is the world’s leading economic historian of East Asia. In th...

7 Maj 46min

Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen in Britain? ~ Robert Allen (Great Divergence #3)

Why was industrial modernity born in Europe and not, say, China? This is one of the most consequential questions about the origins of the modern world. Yet asking “why Europe” can mislead. The Industr...

29 Apr 58min

Why Did So Many Inventions Come from Europe? ~ Joel Mokyr (Great Divergence #2)

Several inventions mark the progress towards modernity - the Gutenberg printing press, the Galileo telescope, the Watt steam engine. But why was Europe the birthplace of so many of these? Joel Mokyr, ...

22 Apr 48min

Why the West? Colonies, Fossil Fuels, and Lessons from China ~ Kenneth Pomeranz (Great Divergence #1)

Why did Western Europe become the richest region of the early modern world? Was the rise of the West powered by colonization, inventions, or something else entirely? And what happened to the medieval ...

16 Apr 54min

Encore: Walking Towards the Human Condition (with Jeremy De Silva)

Something big is coming soon. Stay tuned!Whilst waiting, you can enjoy one of my all-time favourites from the archives.A lot of the recent episodes have mentioned the impact of bipedalism in the human...

4 Apr 1h 22min