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At least that’s what anthropologists say. But what about natural aggression? Anthropologist Marina Butovskaya’s explanations.
“After every destructive war, humanity makes a vow to itself: this will never happen again. However, armed conflicts and clashes remain part of our reality. Does this mean that the desire to fight is our biological need? In the late 1960s, anthropologist Konrad Lorenz came to the conclusion that aggressiveness is inherent in our nature. Unlike other animals, humans initially did not have obvious (like claws or fangs) ways to demonstrate their strength. He had to constantly conflict with rivals for the right to take the lead. Aggression as a biological mechanism, according to Lorenz, laid the foundations of the entire social order.
But Lorenz seems to be wrong. Today it is obvious that there is a second mechanism that controls our behavior – the search for compromises. It plays just as important a role in our relationships with other people as aggression does. This, in particular, is evidenced by the latest research on social practices conducted by anthropologists Douglas Fry and Patrik Söderberg*. So, young great apes often quarrel with those with whom it is easier to reconcile later. They developed special rituals of reconciliation, which are also characteristic of people. Brown macaques hug as a sign of friendship, chimpanzees prefer kisses, and bonobos (the closest species of monkeys to people) are considered an excellent means of restoring relationships … sex. In many communities of higher primates there is an “arbitration court” – special “conciliators” to whom quarrels turn for help. Moreover, the better developed the mechanisms for restoring relations after a conflict, the easier it is to start a fight again. Ultimately, the cycle of fights and reconciliations only increases the cohesion of the team.
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These mechanisms also operate in the human world. I have worked extensively with the Hadza tribe in Tanzania. With other groups of hunter-gatherers, they do not quarrel, but they can fight back aggressive neighbors (pastoralists). They themselves never attack first and did not arrange raids to seize property and women from other groups. Conflicts between groups arise only when resources are scarce and it is necessary to fight for survival.
Aggression and the search for compromises are two universal mechanisms that determine the behavior of people, they exist in any culture. Moreover, we show the ability to resolve conflicts from early childhood. Children do not know how to be in a quarrel for a long time, and the offender is often the first to go to the world. Perhaps, in the heat of conflict, we should consider what we would do if we were children.”
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* Science, 2013, vol. 341.
Marina Butovskaya, Doctor of Historical Sciences, author of the book “Aggression and Peaceful Coexistence” (Scientific World, 2006).