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More like instead of Internet flame wars villages simply waged wars against each other over petty bullshit. The world has less war than ever.

tsimionescu 5y ago
That's not entirely true - pre-agriculture hunter-gatherer societies don't seem to have had any kind of wars at all for all we've been able to find out (obviously they would have had murder and such human-to-human conflict). This actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it - Only with the advent of agriculture did war make any sense, as before it would always be advantageous to just move to a different area rather than risk the few members of your family/tribe in a fight with another family/tribe, especially in the endless forests that populated much of the environment where humans lived.
- _0ffh 5y ago
  Don't know. It's true that an all-out battle is too risky a proposition. But Chimps e.g. are known to patrol the border areas of their territory in order to catch and kill stray members of neighbouring troupes. You can call that a murder, but I'd go with low-intensity warfare.
- ekianjo 5y ago
  > pre-agriculture hunter-gatherer societies don't seem to have had any kind of wars at all for all we've been able to find out Its not because it did not leave any trace that it did not exist
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  Ummm, we've discovered tribes that were/are still at that level of technology. They definitely engage(d) in warfare.
- eru 5y ago
  Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization
  - tsimionescu 5y ago
    Yes, that book mostly confirms what I'm saying l, at least as far as the wikipedia summary can be trusted: > About 90-95% of known societies engage in war. Those that did not are almost universally either isolated nomadic groups (for whom flight is an option) This perfectly describes hunter-gatherer societies. All of the other examples cited in the wikipedia summary, going back as far as the Mesolithic, are settled agricultural societies.
    - eru 5y ago
      Hmm, ok. See perhaps https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Violence_and_Warfare_Among_Hunter_Gather.html https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Violence_and_Warfare...

tsimionescu 5y ago

That's not entirely true - pre-agriculture hunter-gatherer societies don't seem to have had any kind of wars at all for all we've been able to find out (obviously they would have had murder and such human-to-human conflict). This actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it - Only with the advent of agriculture did war make any sense, as before it would always be advantageous to just move to a different area rather than risk the few members of your family/tribe in a fight with another family/tribe, especially in the endless forests that populated much of the environment where humans lived.

_0ffh 5y ago
Don't know. It's true that an all-out battle is too risky a proposition. But Chimps e.g. are known to patrol the border areas of their territory in order to catch and kill stray members of neighbouring troupes. You can call that a murder, but I'd go with low-intensity warfare.
ekianjo 5y ago
> pre-agriculture hunter-gatherer societies don't seem to have had any kind of wars at all for all we've been able to find out Its not because it did not leave any trace that it did not exist
Mikeb85 5y ago
Ummm, we've discovered tribes that were/are still at that level of technology. They definitely engage(d) in warfare.
eru 5y ago
Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization
- tsimionescu 5y ago
  Yes, that book mostly confirms what I'm saying l, at least as far as the wikipedia summary can be trusted: > About 90-95% of known societies engage in war. Those that did not are almost universally either isolated nomadic groups (for whom flight is an option) This perfectly describes hunter-gatherer societies. All of the other examples cited in the wikipedia summary, going back as far as the Mesolithic, are settled agricultural societies.
  - eru 5y ago
    Hmm, ok. See perhaps https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Violence_and_Warfare_Among_Hunter_Gather.html https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Violence_and_Warfare...