You should read a book called "Germs, Guns and Steel" and they other two that go along with it. The named book won the Pulitzer prize and they are non-fiction books about how civilizations have risen. They are very interesting.
One thing he notes is that tens of thousands of years ago there were various proto-humans that existed in Africa, and throughout Asia and Europe. The most notable were the Neanderthals. They spread throughout all these continents without a trace of killing each other.
Then about 50,000 a group called the Cro-Magnons emerged from Africa and within about 10,000 years all the Neanderthals and others proto-humans became extinct.
There are various theories, but one of the leading ones is that the Cro-Magnons developed a gene that made it feel okay to attack societies that weren't like their own, especially when these societies were competitors for survival.
We descend from the Cro-Magnons, not the Neanderthals so the question remains: do we humans feel it is natural to go to war with every society we feel is a threat because of this gene? Maybe, if we descended from the Neanderthals things would be different.
You should read a book called "Germs, Guns and Steel" and they other two that go along with it. The named book won the Pulitzer prize and they are non-fiction books about how civilizations have risen. They are very interesting.
ReplyDeleteOne thing he notes is that tens of thousands of years ago there were various proto-humans that existed in Africa, and throughout Asia and Europe. The most notable were the Neanderthals. They spread throughout all these continents without a trace of killing each other.
Then about 50,000 a group called the Cro-Magnons emerged from Africa and within about 10,000 years all the Neanderthals and others proto-humans became extinct.
There are various theories, but one of the leading ones is that the Cro-Magnons developed a gene that made it feel okay to attack societies that weren't like their own, especially when these societies were competitors for survival.
We descend from the Cro-Magnons, not the Neanderthals so the question remains: do we humans feel it is natural to go to war with every society we feel is a threat because of this gene? Maybe, if we descended from the Neanderthals things would be different.