ABSTRACT
Anthropology, in the American tradition, is divided into sub-disciplines: biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. The first three are used to better understand the nature of deadly group conflict in humans and how war might be prevented. Critically, if humans have developed a society based on a culture that excludes the deadly behaviour of war, can we learn from that example and apply such lessons to our contemporary circumstances? The answer to the first part of this question is a definite ‘yes’. The Inuit in the Canadian Arctic developed a culture without war, but the author’s application of their various cultural adaptations to our modern circumstances has only met with mixed success. In Inuit metaphysics the ethical benefits of personhood are achieved with the giving of a name/soul associated with the reincarnation of a deceased relative. Suicide can be right or wrong, murder is wrong, and revenge killing or execution is acceptable when necessary to prevent a blood feud.
