Book Review - The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War by David Livingstone Smith - Page 3

Smith moves from an examination of the definitions of war, through its ambiguities, its broad and narrow definitions, to distinctions between murder, raids, battle, terrorism, atrocities, crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnocide, and democide. He examines the distinction between "primitive warfare" and "civilized warfare," arguing that such hard boundaries drawn between them are arbitrary and serve only to throw "obstacles in the path of anyone trying to understand the relationship between war and human nature." Defining war ultimately as "premeditated, sanctioned violence carried out by one community (group, tribe, nation, etc.) against members of another," a definition that encompasses all the rest, he goes on to describe, in very simple, straight-forward terms, the reasons for war — territory, food, water, but also less tangible commodities like souls, honor, and justice. And most importantly, something at the very heart of his thesis, something to which he returns again and again, he argues that, "Like it or not, war is distinctively human."

To prove his thesis, that both our warlike nature and our aversion to war are part of human nature, Smith takes us along, chapter by chapter, to look at beings from ants to wolves to primates, with special focus on chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. By seeing how other, especially closely related social animals wage war, we can learn about ourselves. He traces our evolution from prehistoric humans to nomads and settled, agricultural, 'civilized' peoples. He draws on evolution of body and mind (evolutionary biology and psychology) to show how we have been shaped by biological factors into beings fit for war, and simultaneously into beings repulsed by war. Early on in the book Smith is careful to note that "saying that war is driven by biology is not the same as saying that it is inevitable. Indeed, the most important reason for teasing out the biological roots of war is to find better ways to prevent it." Saying war is natural, a case he makes very well with overwhelming evidence and a solid line of reasoning, could easily lead to the accusation that he is supporting war, indeed justifying it.

Going back to definitions for a moment, it is worthwhile to point out how vital it is to question, as Smith does, the easy, euphemistic definitions of war-related terms bandied about by supporters of war. As America continues to justify its 'war on terror', first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq, and possibly soon in Iran (see Impending US Attack on Iran?), Smith's discussion of euphemistic language, designed to conceal the true nature of what is happening and employed in the service of self-deception, is of utmost importance. He spends a good deal of time around definitions of 'terrorism' and 'atrocity', not unlike Noam Chomsky in Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, and Arundhati Roy in War Talk. "As with terrorism," Smith writes, "we imagine that such acts are committed exclusively by the other side and that they are fundamentally alien and profoundly antagonistic to our own way of life."

Article Author: Abram Bergen

Abram Bergen is a logophile, thinker, reader, and writer. His research/writing interests include gender and sexuality issues, hybridity and identity politics, secular ethics, and ecosensitive technologies and lifestyles. …

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