We Eukaryotes

Part 6 - Conflict

Homo erectus appeared about 2 million years ago during the last ice age when the planet was becoming cooler and dryer.   Africa was colder than it is today, and much drier.  At the height of the glaciation, most of the rainforests had been replaced by open grass lands and many plants and animals became extinct including three-toed horses, sabretooth cats, and running hyenas. Birds, buffalos, reptiles, pigs and primates adapted, while other animals arrived, or evolved, on the savannah, including antelopes, elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, jackals, white rhinos, giraffes, modern hyenas and zebras. 

As plants became scarce, competition for food was intense. Only the most adaptable or aggressive survived. Protecting a food supply by driving away or killing competitors was the default survival strategy.

Homo erectus, our hunter-gatherer ancestor, lived in small groups of a few dozen people, usually close family members, and probably survived by scavenging meat from animals killed by drought or predators while also by hunting smaller animals and collecting increasingly scarce fruit, nuts and roots over a large area.   And this was the way of life for 95% of human history.Homonids were, and are, territorial animals. This is hard wired into our brains and the fact that now very few of us need even a small piece of land to supply us with food is irrelevant, we will still fight to the death to defend what we regard as "our land." And this is the simple reason for most warfare.

It is nice to believe that our ancestors, 'came down from the trees' and set out joyfully to make a new life on the African savannah. In reality the trees gradually disappeared and those remaining in wetter areas were already densely occupied . . . by very aggressive hominids, chimpanzees, monkeys and large predators.

Our ancestors didn't have a choice. They had to fight off, or flee from, large predators in good times and, when food was scarce, they had to fight competing primates for more territory and even members of their own family . . . or starve.

They didn't have big claws or long fangs or great strength, they were no match for a full grown chimpanzee and their children were tasty snacks for many predators. Larger brains were the only way they could survive the hostile environment of the savannah. Millions of less aggressive hominids and those with smaller brains died out . . . leaving only those with bigger brains and longer legs.

War was not a major concern when the population of hominids was sparse and food readily available. If they could not find enough food within their own territory they could poach on a neighbour's territory or move to an uninhabited area.

For most of history, family groups were small, perhaps between ten and twenty people of all ages. A group might normally have only a few men and older boys to fight off intruders. Larger family groups tended to exhaust the food available within the group's territory so groups of more than about 50 people tended to be unstable and disagreements over food sharing would cause the group to split up with some migrating to other areas.

Warfare was limited to cautious border skirmishing more intended to threaten than to kill. To intimidate their enemies, warriors often decorated themselves with pigment and animal horns and tusks. Fighting usually ended by mutual agreement when one side had one or more injured. Most deaths were caused by infected wounds. (Spear points were sometimes coated with excrement). Rarely did fighting last more than a day. Skirmishes may have lasted only minutes. This was the normal state of warfare for millions of years with occasionally more dangerous encounters. In good times an increased in the birthrate would result in larger families. Groups of young men might decide to raid deep into neighbouring territory to steal women while also testing the neighbour's defences.

It was obvious that the side with more young men would prevail in any hand-to-hand fighting and thus began the evolutionary desire to have male children and to ensure that they were the best fed. It was an advantage in defending territory and also for raiding parties intent on stealing food and young women. More young women increased the raiders ability to produce more children thereby, incidentally, increasing genetic variability. The enduring race for military supremacy had begun.

Border warfare became more complex as boys were trained for war, some being assigned as guards or sentinels to warn the group of intruders while young men were trained as fighters. Tactics were modelled on hunting techniques where fighters would try to isolate one individual who would be overpowered by several men. Weapons were limited to spears and clubs until the invention of bows and arrows about 60 thousand years ago.

To avoid too many accidental deaths, neighbouring tribes would often pre-arrange border demonstrations to show their strength in manpower and ability to defend their territory. All family members would typically attend to watch the show. (This may be one of our oldest institutions. The custom continues with organized football matches or other ball games such as cricket and basketball).

In hunter-gather societies, taking young men away from hunting even for short periods, required improvements in productivity. The women, children and old people had to provide food for the warriors as well as themselves. This drove to need to save and store food and the most obvious way was to dry fruit and meat.

Young women were attracted to successful hunters as they were more likely to supply food for their children. So strong is this evolutionary urge that even in recently times wealthy men still like to show their skill at killing wild animals. (With high powered rifles). Successful warriors were similarly admired as they could protect their mate and the children. (In the same way we admire, and pay handsomely, sports players). In tough times, neighbouring families formed tribal groups for mutual support and this led to the need for better language and diplomacy and the need to count the number of enemy warriors (by cutting notches on a stick). But families began to lose their autonomy to rulers who were not always close relatives.