This article is a global comparative review of the archaeological and ethnographic literature on evidence for inter-group warfare throughout human history, starting with the emergence of the genus Homo in Africa during the Pleistocene (ca. 2.5 million years ago) and continuing through to the present day. Historically, the discussion around warfare in anthropology has been framed as a debate between a Hobbesian, “deep roots” vision of humanity, wherein the earliest humans inherited a biological instinct for war from their evolutionary ancestors, and a Rousseauian “shallow roots” framework, wherein war is a modern phenomenon, linked to the spread of agriculture and sedentism during the Holocene. However, upon reviewing a large bibliography of published bioarchaeological data, the author concludes that the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes.

This article is a global comparative review of the archaeological and ethnographic literature on evidence for inter-group warfare throughout human history, starting with the emergence of the genus Homo in Africa during the Pleistocene (ca. 2.5 million years ago) and continuing through to the present day. Historically, the discussion around warfare in anthropology has been framed as a debate between a Hobbesian, “deep roots” vision of humanity, wherein the earliest humans inherited a biological instinct for war from their evolutionary ancestors, and a Rousseauian “shallow roots” framework, wherein war is a modern phenomenon, linked to the spread of agriculture and sedentism during the Holocene. However, upon reviewing a large bibliography of published bioarchaeological data, the author concludes that the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes.