The Evolution of Violence [Hardcover]

This volume is an interdisciplinary exploration of our understanding of the causes and consequences of violence. Represented in its chapters are noted scholars from a variety of fields including psychology, anthropology, law, and literature. The contributions reflect a broad scope of inquiry and diverse levels of analysis. With an underlying evolutionary theme each of the contributors invoke their separate areas of expertise, offering empirical and theoretical insights to this complex subject. The multi-faceted aspect of the book is meant to engender new perspectives that will synthesize current knowledge and lead to a more nuanced understanding of an ever timely issue in human behavior.?Of additional interest, is a foreword written by world renowned psychologist, Steven Pinker, and an afterword by noted evolutionary scholar, Richard Dawkins.Intimate Partner Violence in Evolutionary Perspective.- War Before Civilization  15 Years On.- Violence in Literature: An Evolutionary Perspective.- Evolutionary Perspectives on Child Welfare Law.- Warfare and Human Nature.- Sexual Selection and the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict.- Evolutionary Behavioral Genetics of Violent Crime.- The Evolutionary Psychology of Sibling Conflict and Siblicide.- Aggression Grows Up: Looking Through an Evolutionary Developmental Lens to Understand the Causes and Consequences of Human Aggression.- Adaptation and Coherence: Evolutionary and Dynamical Perspectives on Human Violence.- Violence and Aggression in Women. This collection represents the scientific and intellectual richness of the contemporary understanding of violence from an evolutionary perspective, and amply demonstrates why an understanding of the biological roots of violence (and nonviolence) is indispensable to our species attempt to reduce it.
Steven Pinker

Todd K. Shackelford received his Ph.D. in evolutionary psychology in 1997 from the University of TexasAustin, his M.A. in psychology flc<