The Yanomamö

In a recent edition of the eSkeptic, http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/13-03-06/, there is an extract from an interview with anthropologist, Napoleon Chagnon.  Central to the reason for the interview is his disdain for those anthropologists who do not appear to follow the scientific method.  If skeptics believe in anything it is the scientific method as the means to discover and understand the world.  Chagnon has had a career exploring anthropology from a scientific point of view, perhaps as opposed to a cultural point of view.  He has encountered considerable resistance from other practitioners, though was recently rewarded with a membership in the National Academy of Sciences.

Much of his field research has been done with the Yanomamö of Brazil and Venezuela, in theory at least, a group of humans who have not been subject to civilisation's influence, and may be the last of the "Noble Savages."

But Chagnon's findings disputed this, and hence the rejections he received from the establishment.  the Yanomamö were known to be a warring group of people.  The established thesis, was that they fought for resources.  Chagnon's discovery was that they warred over women.  The most successful men were those who had killed the most and in return had been able to father the most children with the most wives.

Not sure that this is a dramatic discovery: it sounds pure Darwinian to me.  Survival of the fittest is the survival to reproduce, and the fitter you are to survive, the more you are able to reproduce.  Resources are not the issue.  It is resources that enable you to access the most desirable women, and therefore you fight.

It seems to me that the same is true of our own civilised societies.  We no longer overtly kill to gain prestige and power, though we certainly reward those who kill on our behalf.  An individual who kills another is not regarded as a good member of society, nor those who contract for such killings.  It is a fine line between leading an army into war crimes, and leading an army into a great victory.

There are other ways of dealing with competitors, that effectively kill them, and remove them from the gene pool.  Office politics is all about gaining advantage in the fight for movement up the ladder.  Or its about limiting the advances that others may make.  Such machinations are every bit as effective in removing competitors from the race, as bumping them off.