ABSTRACT
A survey of the ethnographic material on small-scale societies yields three main conclusions: lethal interpersonal and/or intergroup violence are virtually universal characteristics of these societies; males everywhere are the principal perpetrators and victims of lethal violence; and the causes of lethal violence are ultimately connected to reproductive competition. Statistics on homicide in small-scale traditional societies are far from copious, as most ethno-graphic information on the topic is qualitative and descriptive, rather than quantitative. Regarding the causes of lethal interpersonal violence, many criminologists and other social science researchers have traditionally focused their studies at the level of broad social structural variables such as population density and degree of social stratification, as well as measures of abstract constructs such as social disorganization. Warfare differs from homicide in that, rather than describing one-on-one interpersonal killing, warfare, while including this element of individuals killing one another, occurs in a context of collective hostility and competition between coalitions.
