Read The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined Online

Authors: Steven Pinker

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16. “utterly destroyed” Jericho: Joshua 6.

17. “destroyed all that breathed”: Joshua 10:40–41.

18. “Now go and smite Amalek”: 1 Samuel 15:3.

19. Saul plots to have him killed: 1 Samuel 18:7.

20. “wasted the country”: 1 Chronicles 20:1–3.

21. Solomon’s “divine wisdom”: 1 Kings 3:23–28.

22. Quantifying biblical homicide: Schwager, 2000, pp. 47, 60.

23. Victims of the Noachian flood: Biblical literalists date the flood to around 2300 BCE. McEvedy & Jones, 1978, estimate that the world contained around 14 million people in 3000 BCE and 27 million in 2000 BCE.

24. Real and fictitious biblical history: Kugel, 2007.

25. Authorship of the Christian Bible: Ehrman, 2005.

26. Pagan Jesuses: B. G. Walker, “The other Easters,”
Freethought Today
, Apr. 2008, pp. 6–7; Smith, 1952.

27. Roman entertainment: Kyle, 1998.

28. Forensics of crucifixion: Edwards, Gabel, & Hosmer, 1986.

29. Martyrologies: Gallonio, 1903/2004; Kay, 2000.

30. “The mother was present”: Quoted in Gallonio, 1903/2004, p. 133.

31. Punishment for seven deadly sins: Lehner & Lehner, 1971.

32. Inquisition: Grayling, 2007; Rummel, 1994.

33. “As the levers bent forward”: Quoted in Bronowski, 1973, p. 216.

34. Witch-burning statistics: Rummel, 1994.

35. Augustine on snakes and rotten branches: Grayling, 2007, p. 25.

36. “Burning men”: John 15:6.

37. “Limiting ourselves to quantifiable instances”: Kaeuper, 2000, p. 24.

38. “never killing a knight who begged for mercy”: Quoted in Kaeuper, 2000, p. 31.

39. “take a lady or maiden in any way he desires”: Quoted in Kaeuper, 2000, p. 30.

40. Henry V’s ultimatum:
Henry V,
Act 3, Scene III.

41. Witch burned to death: Tatar, 2003, p. 207.

42. Grimm’s fairy tales: Tatar, 2003.

43. Punch and Judy: Schechter, 2005, pp. 83–84.

44. Violence in nursery rhymes: Davies, Lee, Fox, & Fox, 2004.

45. Hamilton: Chernow, 2004.

46. Hamilton’s duel: Krystal, 2007.

47. History of dueling: Krystal, 2007; Schwartz, Baxter, & Ryan, 1984.

48. Humor as a weapon against honor: Pinker, 1997, chap. 8.

49. Ridicule ended dueling: Stevens, 1940, pp. 280–83, quoted in Mueller, 1989, p. 10.

50. Martial culture and its decline: Sheehan, 2008; van Creveld, 2008.

51. Nonviolent German games: A. Curry, “Monopoly killer,”
Wired,
Apr. 2009.

52. Decline of elite violence: Cooney, 1997.

53. Misogynistic ads: Ad Nauseam, 2000. The Chase & Sanborn ad ran in
Life
magazine on Aug. 11, 1952.

54. Changes in reactions to the word
rape:
Tom Jones, e-mail to the author, Nov. 19, 2010, reprinted with his permission.

55. Beating schoolchildren: Personal communication from British and Catholic friends; also S. Lyall, “Blaming church, Ireland details scourge of abuse: Report spans 60 years,”
New York Times
, May 21, 2009.

Chapter 2: The Pacification Process

1. From a cartoon by Bob Mankoff.

2. Darwin, genetics, and game theory: Maynard Smith, 1998; Maynard Smith & Szathmáry, 1997.

3. “To a survival machine”: Dawkins, 1976/1989, p. 66.

4. Animal violence: Williams, 1988; Wrangham, 1999a.

5. “three principal causes of quarrel”: Hobbes, 1651/1957, p. 185.

6. Competition over females: Darwin, 1874; Trivers, 1972.

7. Misunderstandings of sexual selection: Pinker, 1997, 2002.

8. Security dilemma: Schelling, 1960.

9. “nothing can be more gentle than [man] in his primitive state”: Rousseau, 1755/1994, pp. 61–62.

10. Peace and Harmony Mafia: Van der Dennen, 1995, 2005.

11. Chimpanzee violence: Goodall, 1986; Wilson & Wrangham, 2003; Wrangham, 1999a; Mitani, Watts, & Amsler, 2010.

12. Aggressive displays in animals: Maynard Smith, 1988; Wrangham, 1999a.

13. Goodall’s shocking discovery: Goodall, 1986.

14. Lethal violence in chimpanzees: Wilson & Wrangham, 2003; Wrangham, 1999a; Wrangham, Wilson, & Muller, 2006.

15. Adaptive value of chimpicide: Wilson & Wrangham, 2003; Wrangham, 1999a; Wrangham &

Peterson, 1996; Mitani et al., 2010.

16. Bonobos: de Waal & Lanting, 1997; Furuichi & Thompson, 2008; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996. Bonobos and popular culture: I. Parker, “Swingers,”
New Yorker
, Jul. 30, 2007; M. Dowd, “The Baby Bust,”
New York Times
, Apr. 10, 2002.

17. Bonobos as model of human ancestor: de Waal, 1996; de Waal & Lanting, 1997.

18. Bonobos in the wild: Furuichi & Thompson, 2008; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996; I. Parker, “Swingers,”
New Yorker
, Jul. 30, 2007.

19. Bonobos as outliers: Wrangham & Pilbeam, 2001.

20. Sexual dimorphism and male-male competition: Plavcan, 2000.

21.
Ardipithecus ramidus:
White et al., 2009.

22. Sexual dimorphism and male-male competition in
Homo:
Plavcan, 2000; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996, pp. 178–82.

23. Neolithic Revolution: Diamond, 1997; Gat, 2006; Otterbein, 2004.

24. Wave of farming: Cavalli-Sforza, 2000; Gat, 2006.

25. Kinds of societies: Gat, 2006.

26. First states: Diamond, 1997; Gat, 2006; Kurtz, 2001; Otterbein, 2004.

27. Modern chiefdoms: Goldstein, 2011.

28. Early states as protection rackets: Gat, 2006; Kurtz, 2001; North, Wallis, & Weingast, 2009; Otterbein, 2004; Steckel & Wallis, 2009; Tilly, 1985.

29. Effeminate Chambri: Daly & Wilson, 1988, p. 152.

30. Dirty tricks against anthropologists: Freeman, 1999; Pinker, 2002, chap. 6; Dreger, 2011; C. C. Mann, “Chagnon critics overstepped bounds, historian says,”
Science
, Dec. 11, 2009.

31. Myths of harmless primitive warfare: Keeley, 1996.

32. “little to fight about”: Eckhardt, 1992, p. 1.

33. Pre-state violence: Keeley, 1996; LeBlanc, 2003; Gat, 2006; Van der Dennen, 1995; Thayer, 2004; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

34. Raids in primitive warfare: Chagnon, 1996; Gat, 2006; Keeley, 1996; LeBlanc, 2003; Thayer, 2004; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

35. Primitive weaponry: Keeley, 1996.

36. “[they] delight to torment men”: Quoted in Schechter, 2005, p. 2.

37. Yanomamö raid: Valero & Biocca, 1970.

38. Wathaurung raid: Morgan, 1852/1979, pp. 43–44.

39. Iñupiaq raid: Burch, 2005, p. 110.

40. Cannibalism: Fernández-Jalvo et al., 1996; Gibbons, 1997.

41. Prion diseases: E. Pennisi, “Cannibalism and prion disease may have been rampant in ancient humans,”
Science
, Apr. 11, 2003, pp. 227–28.

42. Maori warrior taunt: A. Vayda’s
Maori warfare
(1960), quoted in Keeley, 1996, p. 100.

43. Motives for primitive warfare: Chagnon, 1988; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Gat, 2006; Keeley, 1996; Wiessner, 2006.

44. Yanomamö man “tired of fighting”: Quoted in Wilson, 1978, pp. 119–20.

45. Universality of revenge: Daly & Wilson, 1988; McCullough, 2008.

46. Body counts in nonstate societies: Bowles, 2009; Gat, 2006; Keeley, 1996.

47. Forensic archaeology: Keeley, 1996; McCall & Shields, 2007; Steckel & Wallis, 2009; Thorpe, 2003; Walker, 2001.

48. Death by violence in prehistoric societies: Bowles, 2009; Keeley, 1996.

49. Death by violence in hunter-gatherers: Bowles, 2009.

50. Death by violence in hunter-horticulturalists and tribal farmers: Gat, 2006; Keeley, 1996.

51. Death by violence in state societies: Keeley, 1996.

52. Rates of death in war: The 3 percent estimate comes from Wright’s sixteen-hundred-page
A study of war:
Wright, 1942, p. 245. The first edition was completed in November 1941, before World War II’s most destructive years. The figure was unchanged, however, in the 1965 revision (Wright, 1942/1965, p. 245), and in the 1964 abridgment (Wright, 1942/1964, p. 60), though the latter mentions Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki in the same paragraph. I assume the unchanged estimate was intentional, and that the additional world war deaths were offset by the billion people added to the world during the more fecund and less lethal postwar decades.

53. 20th-century U.S. and Europe estimate: Keeley, 1996, from Harris, 1975.

54. Battle deaths are summed for the years 1900 through 1945 inclusive from the three Correlates of War datasets (Inter-State, Extrastate, and Intrastate), using the larger figure of the two columns “State Deaths” and “Total Deaths” (Sarkees, 2000;
http://www.correlatesofwar.org
), together with the geometric mean of the “Battle Dead Low” and “Battle Dead High” estimates for the years 1946 to 2000 inclusive from the PRIO Battle Deaths Dataset (Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Eriksson, Sollenberg, & Strand, 2002; Lacina & Gleditsch, 2005;
http://www.prio.no/Data/
).

55. 20th-century battle deaths: The denominator of 6 billion deaths comes from an estimate that 12 billion people lived in the 20th century (Mueller, 2004b, p. 193) and that about 5.75 billion were alive at the century’s end.

56. 180 million violent deaths: White, in press; the 3 percent figure comes from using 6.25 billion as the estimate of the total number of deaths; see note 55.

57. Iraq and Afghanistan casualties: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count,
www.icasualties.org
.

58. War battle death rate: Human Security Report Project, 2008, p. 29. The worldwide death estimate of 56.5 million deaths is from the World Health Organization. The twentyfold multiplier is based on the WHO estimate of 310,000 “war-related deaths” in 2000, the most recent year available in the
World report on violence and health.
See Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002, p. 10.

59. Death by violence in pre-Columbian nonstate and state societies: Steckel & Wallis, 2009.

60. Homicide rates in modern Europe: Eisner, 2001.

61. United States homicide rates in the 1970s and 1980s: Daly & Wilson, 1988.

62. Aztecs: Keeley, 1996, table 6.1, p. 195.

63. Death rates for France, Russia, Germany, and Japan: Keeley, 1996, table 6.1, p. 195; 20th-century figures are pro-rated for missing years.

64. Deaths in American wars: Leland & Oboroceanu, 2010, “Total Deaths” column. Population figures are from U.S. Census,
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/hist_stats.html
.

65. All violent 20th-century deaths: Based on 180 million deaths estimated by White, in press, and an average annual world population for the 20th century of 3 billion.

66. 2005 battle deaths: United States:
www.icasualties.org
. World: UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset, Human Security Report Project, 2007; see Human Security Centre, 2005, based in part on data from Gleditsch et al., 2002, and Lacina & Gleditsch, 2005.

67. Prevalence of war among hunter-gatherers: Divale, 1972; Ember, 1978; Keeley, 1996. See also Chagnon, 1988; Gat, 2006; Knauft, 1987; Otterbein, 2004. Van der Dennen, 2005, cites eight estimates of the proportion of nonstate societies that have rarely or never engaged in war; the median is 15 percent.

68. Andamanese: “Noble or savage? The era of the hunter-gatherer was not the social and environmental Eden that some suggest,”
Economist
, Dec. 19, 2007.

69. Defeated refugees: Gat, 2006; Keeley, 1996; Van der Dennen, 2005.

70. Violent !Kung San past: Goldstein, 2001, p. 28.

71. Semai violence: Knauft, 1987.

72. !Kung and Central Arctic Inuit: Gat, 2006; Lee, 1982.

73. United States homicide rates: Fox & Zawitz, 2007; Zahn & McCall, 1999; Pax Botswaniana: Gat, 2006.

74. Pax Canadiana: Chirot & McCauley, 2006, p. 114.

75. “Life was better since the government came”: Quoted in Thayer, 2004, p. 140.

76. Retribution, feuds, and adjudication: Ericksen & Horton, 1992.

77. Increase in violence with decolonization: Wiessner, 2006.

78. Health hazards of civilization: Steckel & Wallis, 2009; Diamond, 1997.

79. Fall from Eden and early civilization: Kugel, 2007.

BOOK: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined