Although no other primate species makes war as humans do, our closest biological relatives, the African apes, defend territory in organized groups and sometimes cooperating males from one chimpanzee community appear to deliberately provoke fights with other communities of their own species.3 This cooperative aggression is unusual since in other mammalian species single males defend areas against all other males. Probably the evolution of cooperative behavior in primates is related, in part, to the evolution of aggression.4 A similar but not necessarily related linkage sees proficiency and cooperation in warfare as a selective advantage in human evolution.5 Aggressive behavior in humans, between humans and animals, and between human pairs and groups is easily leamed, practiced by children and youth in play, and encouraged and rewarded by society."
The likelihood of violence in primates increases when strangers are crowded together, especially in the presence of valued resources. As with human needs, valued and frequently scarce resources include not only tangible entities like food and optimal breeding circumstances, but also psychological needs such as status and dominance.6
Pseudospeciation
Much more complicated than chimpanzee territorial struggles, the human propensity to subdivide into antagonistic groups is profound and widespread and the distinctions are based in belief systems such as religion and politics. Even in basic categories of tribe, race, nation and language, belief systems relating to the superiority of one group over another are central components of the antagonisms. Erikson points out that the rivalry involves goals beyond biological health and prosperity to dreams of immortality.7 In this process the in-group sees itself as a superhuman pseudospecies and its adversary out-group as a subhuman and evil pseudospecies. From this concept of pseudospeciation, the subhumans are targets for domination and even genocide.8 This may help explain the curious fascination of humankind in the injury and killing of other humans and the ease with which such behavior can be rationalized.9
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