ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is a roadmap to understanding the evolution of war, sociality, cooperation, and conflict avoidance in humans, and what that tells us about human evolution more generally. It builds on studies and publications, offering a holistic anthropological perspective that marshals data from anthropology's subfields. The book is about the emergence of warfare; the exploration cannot be completed in a context void of human culture and human capacities to practice both forms of war and peace. It devotes to the origins of warfare; it brings the discussion back to a larger consideration of warfare's relationship to the studies of human nature and cultural contexts of peace. The book highlights some of the evidence that reflects developing human compassion and empathy. It also highlights the ways in which humans have developed cultural institutions that help to construct and maintain social cohesion and stability.
