Human Evolution: Groups, Cultures, and Wars

In Human Evolution: Groups, Cultures, and Wars, the starting point is the problem of wars: Why has there been a seemingly endless chain of wars since prehistoric times? The aim is to reconsider this problem through a deeper, interdisciplinary analysis, drawing on the history of human evolution. The book claims that this problem is intimately related to the puzzle why the cultural evolution of Homo sapiens has been immensely faster in the last 70,000 years than the evolution of Homo family in the previous 2.7 million years. Both sides of human evolution are presented: the remarkable achievements of human culture, science, technology, and the arts on one hand, and the harsh reality of history, marked by constant chains of wars that date back to prehistoric times on the other. It also aims to overview the possible ways to curb the causes of wars and other aggressive conflicts between groups of humans, especially the causes underlying human cultural evolution.