Does warfare make societies more complex? Controversial study says yes

[Judi Lynn]

Archaeological analysis suggests an arms race in ironworking and cavalry spurred bureaucracy and bigger populations

28 JUN 20225:2PM
BY MICHAEL PRICE5

War is hell. It breaks apart families, destroys natural resources, and drives humans to commit unspeakable acts of violence. Yet according to a new analysis of human history, war may also prod the evolution of certain kinds of complex societies. The twin developments of agriculture and military technology—especially cavalries and iron weapons—have predicted the rise of empires.

“I think they make a convincing case,” says Robert Drennan, an archaeologist at the University of Pittsburgh who wasn’t involved in the work. Yet he and others argue the study offers a rather limited look into how exactly these factors might have shaped societies.

Scholars largely agree that agriculture was one of the major drivers of increasingly complex societies by allowing for bigger, more sedentary populations and divisions of labor. More contentious has been the role of strife.

“The majority of archaeologists are against the warfare theory,” says Peter Turchin, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and the new study’s lead author. “Nobody likes this ugly idea because obviously warfare is a horrible thing, and we don’t like to think it can have any positive effects.”

More:
https://www.science.org/content/article/does-warfare-make-societies-more-complex-controversial-study-says-yes