Rough and Tumble
Aggression, Hunting, and Human Evolution
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- $34.99
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
Travis Rayne Pickering argues that the advent of ambush hunting approximately two million years ago marked a milestone in human evolution, one that established the social dynamic that allowed our ancestors to expand their range and diet. He challenges the traditional link between aggression and human predation, however, claiming that while aggressive attack is a perfectly efficient way for our chimpanzee cousins to kill prey, it was a hopeless tactic for early human hunters, who—in comparison to their large, potentially dangerous prey—were small, weak, and slow-footed. Technology that evolved from wooden spears to stone-tipped spears and ultimately to the bow and arrow increased the distance between predator and prey and facilitated an emotional detachment that allowed hunters to stalk and kill large game. Based on studies of humans and of other primates, as well as on fossil and archaeological evidence, Rough and Tumble offers a new perspective on human evolution by decoupling ideas of aggression and predation to build a more realistic understanding of what it is to be human.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the technical literature, it was paleontologist Raymond Dart who, in the 1940s, promoted the killer ape hypothesis the idea that humans are a bloodthirsty species whose evolution was based on their propensity to hunt and kill. His contemporary Robert Ardrey popularized this view; now, decades later, Pickering, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin and associate editor of the Journal of Human Evolution, takes on this proposition and demolishes it. Where Ardrey claimed that "man is a predator whose natural instinct is to kill with a weapon," Pickering asserts that the data require us to "disaggregate notions of aggression and hunting." Like most paleontologists, Pickering agrees that "hunting was a primary factor in our becoming fully human," but he goes on to explain that successful hunting by early humans could only occur when the aggression associated with killing was controlled by the intellect, thereby enabling individuals to work together and to distance themselves from direct and dangerous interaction with prey. Pickering provides an abbreviated but compelling history of the field, discussing dominant players as well as offering insights into how to interpret complex and fragmentary data. And while he's no Jared Diamond, Pickering is nevertheless a capable and accessible guide. 12 b&w photos, 1 table.
