![]() “It’s great to see such a big dataset from a region where we haven’t had these large-scale studies,” says Linda Fibiger, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Edinburgh, who was not directly involved in the study but helped review the paper. The scientist found that evidence of interpersonal violence-primarily in the form of head trauma-increased significantly during times of socioeconomic upheaval and shifting climate. and drew from the skeletal remains of more than 3,500 individuals. The authors looked at a period of Middle Eastern history between 12,000 and 400 B.C.E. Instead periods of violence appear to have flared up before later simmering down numerous times in different regions depending on myriad factors, according to the study, which was published in Nature Human Behaviour. The amount of violence present in any society might not conform to a linear trajectory that moves continuously in an upward or descending direction. A new study takes a crack at answering the question, but its conclusions imply that neat dove-versus-hawk categorizations are overly simplistic. The merits of the arguments on one side or the other have always been suspect because of a lack of solid evidence for either case. ![]() Until recently, viewpoints on the matter divided roughly into two camps: the “doves,” who viewed preclassical civilizations as largely harmonious until the dawn of agriculture, and the “hawks,” who perceived early settlements as brutal, warlike places that became more peaceful after people began farming cooperatively. Anthropologists have long debated whether human societies have become more or less violent since the first states rose to power thousands of years ago. ![]()
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