Tag: violence
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ROBA as Human-Exclusive Recursion
Steven Pinker was recently on EconTalk with Russ Roberts, who (shameless plug) featured me some years ago and urged me to write my book. Thanks Russ. Pinker tackles the problem of how humans acquire cultural knowledge, which he describes as an infinite regression (recursion) of beliefs. A quick summary: at 1:51 Pinker describes the Finite…
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Object-thinkers vs. Relation-thinkers
Recently I published my in-depth article on kinship. Shortly afterward I began reading Nelson Goodman’s Ways of Worldmaking (1978). Goodman’s hypothesis is that people create their own worlds through the use of language, and we verify these worlds through language. It recalled a discussion I had recently with a friend who’s an avid reader of…
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The Big Bang of Human Violence (and Answering Eric Gans)
Eric Gans has had arguably the most significant influence on my ROBA Hypothesis. His Originary Hypothesis posits a moment when the violence of the human community becomes so potentially apocalyptic that someone, or everyone, produces the first signal of deferral. In Gans’ configuration, the protohuman group gathers around an animal carcass, which they’ve hunted. In…
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The Messianic Message of Planet of the Apes
The film series Planet of the Apes predicts a day when one chimpanzee (“Caesar”) finally evolves to have human-like intelligence. The reason given in the original film series is the domestication of the chimp as a pet when dogs and cats go extinct. The modern film series seem to part from this, removing humans from…
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The Anthropology and Mythology of Sleeping with 100 Men
Reportedly, an adult star named Lily Phillips slept with 100 men and, surprise, is pregnant! This was once called “temple prostitution.” A woman would sell herself (or be sold) to a temple & “serve the god” as his seed bank. Anon. men would come and pay, sometimes dress up as the god, do their thing…
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A Ledger of Aggression Hypotheses
I change my mind a lot. Some people think this as a weakness. Then I wondered, What other way is there to think? I suppose I could form an opinion and defend it until I die. That would be a very dogmatic and rigid kind of thinking, or it would appear principled and “strong.” At…
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Human vs. Higher Exchange
The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 calls on us to avoid hypocrisy, love our neighbors as ourselves, and do not return hate for hate or blow for blow. We’re to offer hospitality even to our enemies and avoid making a show of charity. We’re to cut out things in life that cause us…
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2025 Research Plan – The Mythology of Violence
As mentioned in the last post, my 2025 reading list is mostly going to be mythology. Challenge: If liberals are right and violence is “learned” (as per Montagu and the Seville Statement) then there should be myths of the origins of the learning of this violence. If conservatives are right and violence gradually evolved from…
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The Myth of the Weaponized Ape
With my book If These Fists Could Talk coming out this month, I’m starting research for my next book on the mythology of violence. We have a story we tell in our science: that as primates left the jungles of Africa, they underwent the trials of the environment, which evolved their component parts – brains,…
