ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the effects that cultural factors have on the expression of interpersonal and intergroup aggression. Some of the cross-cultural variation in warfare can be attributed to social organisation. Societies have extremely low rates of homicide and other kinds of physical aggression, and some societies do not engage in feuding or warfare. A cross-cultural perspective reveals a steady pattern: Across all forms of social organisation, men engage in more frequent and more severe physical aggression than do women. The particular study on the South American Yanomami has resulted in so much controversy about human aggression that it deserves some attention. Anthropological data have been used and misused for decades in debates about aggression and human nature. D. P. Fry and P. Soderberg document this sex difference in lethal aggression for a sample of 21 nomadic forager societies. Comparative vantage point shows that the types of aggression and approaches to conflict management vary in relation to social organisation.
