Change of Perspective: Integrating Evolutionary Psychology Into the Historiography of Violence

• NCJ Number: 234986
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2011 Pages: 479-498
• Author(s): John Carter Wood
• Date Published: May 2011
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study examined the incorporation of evolutionary psychological perspectives and approaches into social and cultural analyses of violence.

Abstract

Despite lively debates in many related fields about whether biological and evolutionary approaches can contribute to social and cultural investigations of human behavior, historians have rarely confronted this issue directly. The historiography of violence is a partial exception, but there has been relatively little interdisciplinary exchange on topics central to both historical and natural-science analyses. Nevertheless, historians of violence have relied upon two concepts'social roles' and 'social construction'that have been subject to constructive critique and revision from Darwinian perspectives. This article concludes by arguing that greater incorporation of evolutionary psychological perspectives and approaches into social and cultural analyses of violence (whether historical or contemporary) has much to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of physical aggression. (Published Abstract)