The problem of origins of violence in prehistory still raises many controversies among scholars representing nearly all branches of social sciences. The large number of existing interpretations only complicates the current state of research. This paper’s aim is to present and briefly discuss two main theoretical approaches to the problem, along with an attempt to evaluate them using archaeological record representing the earliest material evidence for small-scale organized warfare.
The paper’s main aim is to outline the problem of polarisation of contemporary discussion concerning the concept of origins of warfare. Basically, two leading trends can be distinguished: the first one accentuates the biological basis of human violence and places its origins deep into our evolutionary past. The second one recognises conflict as a relatively late and typically cultural phenomenon in human prehistory, which cannot be interpreted in terms of natural selection and evolution. The existence of a sharp ideological border between ‘hawks’ and ‘doves’ enables a comparison of both perspectives and facilitates the analysis of internal dynamics of their development.
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