ABSTRACT
Maurice Davie's marvelous book on the evolution and role of warfare in early society gives so many accounts of out-group enmity that it seems the natural order of things. Assuming that ethnocentrism has sociobiological underpinnings among nucleus ethnic groups, little attention has been devoted to emergent evolutionary processes which would have reinforced out-group enmity as groups grew in size and complexity. In this chapter, the authors elaborate this proposition by filling out the sociological dimensions of group dynamics which reinforced in-group amity/ out-group enmity during early humanity. During later periods of human evolution, Alexander, proposes that the main purpose of kin-related groups, and thus their significance for individual members, shifted from protection against predatory effects of nonhumans to protection against predatory effects of other human groups. Empirical studies bearing on the open- versus closed-group debate have been summarized by Reynolds.
