Is the question why tribes go to war, or or why individuals do?
The first question isn’t hard to answer. For most of history, there weren’t other means of conflict resolution , there weren’t other means of economic expansion , and it was often a matter of life and death.
The hard problem seems to be why individuals volunteer for wars that aren’t obviously defensive. Humans..well, males mostly … have evolved aggression , comradeship , loyalty obedience and so on, which enable warfare. But unfocussed aggression is a nett negative where it’s not needed. It would be better to have a switch, and we have switches, because we have evolved to be cultural and symbolic.
The objective facts barely matter. People will readily fight over symbolic slights or ideological principles. (Jared Diamond sees the justification of war as the main function of state religion).
also, in tribes a significant fraction of the male populace dies to such conflict. Such risk is already priced in to the lizard brain’s distributions so to speak. Modern warfare i actually a better deal risk wise.
Is the question why tribes go to war, or or why individuals do?
The first question isn’t hard to answer. For most of history, there weren’t other means of conflict resolution , there weren’t other means of economic expansion , and it was often a matter of life and death.
The hard problem seems to be why individuals volunteer for wars that aren’t obviously defensive. Humans..well, males mostly … have evolved aggression , comradeship , loyalty obedience and so on, which enable warfare. But unfocussed aggression is a nett negative where it’s not needed. It would be better to have a switch, and we have switches, because we have evolved to be cultural and symbolic.
The objective facts barely matter. People will readily fight over symbolic slights or ideological principles. (Jared Diamond sees the justification of war as the main function of state religion).
also, in tribes a significant fraction of the male populace dies to such conflict. Such risk is already priced in to the lizard brain’s distributions so to speak. Modern warfare i actually a better deal risk wise.