ABSTRACT
Aggression means different things to different people. Indeed, some workers dismiss is entirely, preferring coercive power. Aggression may also be used to defend an exclusive breeding area by individuals, pairs or groups (a territory) which also has a sexual selection value. The signals involved in established social organisations may be very subtle. For example, in primates such as Squirrel monkeys stare threat may be the predominant activity. Workers with animals generally currently acknowledge that there is no single motivation for aggression. The diversity of views of the genesis of human aggression strongly suggest that it will be difficult to assess the claimed relationship between alcohol ingestion and violence. Most workers recognise that activities receiving the label ‘aggression’ are a consequence of subtle interactions between biological, situational and experiential factors. The resulting picture is considerably more complex than the abolitionist’s view that this ‘evil of drink’ is well established.
