Social Substitutability and the Origins of War: An Alternative Theory

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

An important theory for the origins of war defines it as lethal retaliatory action based on a structural principle of social substitutability, a principle that any member of the targeted group can be killed to avenge the actions of any one of its members. Prior to the Holocene, according to the theory, this principle (and hence war) did not exist. Lethal violence did occur and the victim’s kin might target and kill a perceived malefactor. But these actions constituted homicides, accidents, and capital punishment, not war. War – lethal violence based on social substitutability – arose as human population growth in the Holocene increased competition for resources, and groups started to launch lethal ambushes against rivals for resources. Because ambush is an attack from hiding, however, the attackers’ identities could not be known so lethal retaliation was targeted instead at any member of their group, and so war was born. Data from the warring societies of contact-era New Guinea, however, cast doubt on this argument. They indicate instead that social substitution was a product of defensive warfare, a conclusion that undermines the proposition that war evolved in the Holocene and that its emergence depended on a logic of social substitutability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33023