#781 R. Brian Ferguson - Chimpanzees, War, and History: Are Men Born to Kill?

Dr. R. Brian Ferguson is Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University Newark. His expertise lies in cultural anthropology, the anthropology of war, ethnic conflict, state-tribe interaction, policing, and Puerto Rico. Dr. Ferguson has published many papers critical of biological perspectives in anthropology, especially explanations of war. His latest book is “Chimpanzees, War, and History: Are Men Born to Kill?”.

In this episode, we focus on Chimpanzees, War, and History. We start by talking about the history of the belief in a “death instinct” and aggressive drives, and what is war. We go through different cases of chimpanzee groups – Gombe, Mahale, and Kibale -, and get into detail about the Four-Year War; human interference; chimp territoriality; the rise of sociobiology; the Imbalance of Power Hypothesis; the Resource Competition Hypothesis; the Human Impact Hypothesis; the Display Violence Hypothesis; when chimps resort to violence; the aftermath of the war; and issues with counting killings. We discuss the best ways to study violence in chimpanzees. We also talk about bonobos, the demonic perspective applied to human warfare, and Dr. Ferguson’s anthropological theory of war.

Time Links:
00:00 Intro
00:47 The history of the belief in a “death instinct” and aggressive drives
09:05 What is war?
11:23 Jane Goodall’s initial work on Gombe chimps
15:14 “The Great Revision”
21:29 The Four-Year War
25:09 How human activity created and shaped intergroup tensions leading to the War
31:59 Chimp territoriality
33:59 The rise of sociobiology
37:53 Interference mutualism and coalitional aggression
41:26 The Imbalance of Power Hypothesis
47:11 The Dominance Drive
50:32 The Resource Competition Hypothesis
54:51 The Human Impact Hypothesis
56:25 The Display Violence Hypothesis
1:02:40 When do chimps resort to violence?
1:05:03 The aftermath of the war
1:09:09 Issues with the counting of killings
1:14:09 The Mahale case
1:23:13 The Kibale case
1:33:00 How to study violence in chimpanzees
1:37:12 Bonobos
1:46:42 Are most killers and victims male?
1:50:06 The demonic perspective applied to human warfare
1:56:22 Dr. Ferguson’s anthropological theory of war
2:00:15 Follow Dr. Ferguson’s work!

Follow Dr. Ferguson’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3w7mXHy
Website: https://bit.ly/3PJeGlr
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3Ci5EqS
Chimpanzees, War, and History: https://bit.ly/3yYolNr