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Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence

Inter-personal violence (whether intra- or inter-group) is a pervasive yet highly variable human behavior. Evolutionary anthropologists suggest that the abundance and distribution of resources play an important role in influencing differences in rates of violence, with implications for how resource...

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Autores principales: McCool, Weston C., Vernon, Kenneth B., Yaworsky, Peter M., Codding, Brian F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9126380/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35604917
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268257
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author McCool, Weston C.
Vernon, Kenneth B.
Yaworsky, Peter M.
Codding, Brian F.
author_facet McCool, Weston C.
Vernon, Kenneth B.
Yaworsky, Peter M.
Codding, Brian F.
author_sort McCool, Weston C.
collection PubMed
description Inter-personal violence (whether intra- or inter-group) is a pervasive yet highly variable human behavior. Evolutionary anthropologists suggest that the abundance and distribution of resources play an important role in influencing differences in rates of violence, with implications for how resource conditions structure adaptive payoffs. Here, we assess whether differences in large-scale ecological conditions explain variability in levels of inter-personal human violence. Model results reveal a significant relationship between resource conditions and violence that is mediated by subsistence economy. Specifically, we find that interpersonal violence is highest: (1) among foragers and mixed forager/farmers (horticulturalists) in productive, homogeneous environments, and (2) among agriculturalists in unproductive, heterogeneous environments. We argue that the trend reversal between foragers and agriculturalists represents differing competitive pathways to enhanced reproductive success. These alternative pathways may be driven by features of subsistence (i.e., surplus, storage, mobility, privatization), in which foragers use violence to directly acquire fitness-linked social payoffs (i.e., status, mating opportunities, alliances), and agriculturalists use violence to acquire material resources that can be transformed into social payoffs. We suggest that as societies transition from immediate return economies (e.g., foragers) to delayed return economies (e.g., agriculturalists) material resources become an increasingly important adaptive payoff for inter-personal, especially inter-group, violence.
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spelling pubmed-91263802022-05-24 Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence McCool, Weston C. Vernon, Kenneth B. Yaworsky, Peter M. Codding, Brian F. PLoS One Research Article Inter-personal violence (whether intra- or inter-group) is a pervasive yet highly variable human behavior. Evolutionary anthropologists suggest that the abundance and distribution of resources play an important role in influencing differences in rates of violence, with implications for how resource conditions structure adaptive payoffs. Here, we assess whether differences in large-scale ecological conditions explain variability in levels of inter-personal human violence. Model results reveal a significant relationship between resource conditions and violence that is mediated by subsistence economy. Specifically, we find that interpersonal violence is highest: (1) among foragers and mixed forager/farmers (horticulturalists) in productive, homogeneous environments, and (2) among agriculturalists in unproductive, heterogeneous environments. We argue that the trend reversal between foragers and agriculturalists represents differing competitive pathways to enhanced reproductive success. These alternative pathways may be driven by features of subsistence (i.e., surplus, storage, mobility, privatization), in which foragers use violence to directly acquire fitness-linked social payoffs (i.e., status, mating opportunities, alliances), and agriculturalists use violence to acquire material resources that can be transformed into social payoffs. We suggest that as societies transition from immediate return economies (e.g., foragers) to delayed return economies (e.g., agriculturalists) material resources become an increasingly important adaptive payoff for inter-personal, especially inter-group, violence. Public Library of Science 2022-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9126380/ /pubmed/35604917 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268257 Text en © 2022 McCool et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
McCool, Weston C.
Vernon, Kenneth B.
Yaworsky, Peter M.
Codding, Brian F.
Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
title Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
title_full Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
title_fullStr Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
title_full_unstemmed Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
title_short Subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
title_sort subsistence strategy mediates ecological drivers of human violence
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9126380/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35604917
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268257
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