Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
"Only in the past fifteen years have scholars with no political ax to grind, such as Lawrence Keeley, Steven LeBlanc, Azar Gat, and Johan van der Dennen, begun to compile systematic reviews of the frequency and damage of fighting in large samples of non-state peoples."
Pinker then goes on to show the rate of violent death in pre-state societies identified from skeletons dug out of archaeological sites. They range from 0 per cent death rate from warfare to 60 per cent, with an average of 15 per cent. Studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies show an average rate of death by warfare of 14 per cent. The rate in Europe in the 20th century (including WW1 and WW2) was under 3 per cent.
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Except that Pinker also notes that there are features of certain modern societies that make them less violent than their primitive counterparts, which seems to indicate that whatever our biological nature is that it can be molded and influenced by our environment and culture. Having a biological predisposition to rape or sexual assault doesn't explain why incidences of it are much higher in the military than in other parts of society, which is why we need to start questioning military culture (such as the practice of attributing rape to biological urges).