Peacefulness in general
Engaging New Book Examines the “Human Potential for Peace” [book review]
Fry, Douglas P. 2006. The Human Potential for Peace: an Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press Reviewed by Agustín Fuentes, Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame Peace is a substantial part of our history and our present, but engaging with modern media and reading many […]
World Leaders Pontificate about Peaceful Societies
Six months ago this news column criticized President Bush for using the expression “a democratic society is a peaceful society” to justify his argument that aggression against Iraq could foster peace. While the President is not using those exact words lately in his defensive speeches about the war, other world leaders appear to be picking […]
Holiday Gift Suggestions: Books for Peaceful People [book review]
Books about peaceful societies would make ideal Christmas presents for people who take seriously the basic message of the New Testament that emphasizes “on earth peace, good will toward men.” While used copies of all the works recommended on the Best Books page of this website are normally available through Bookfinder.com, many people prefer to […]
Papers on Human Sociality Planned for AAAS Meeting
The upcoming Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis, February 16 – 20, 2006, will have at least one paper session relating to human propensities for peacefulness. One of the programs in The Human Origins and Culture Tract of the AAAS is titled “Man the Hunted: The Origin […]
New Boulding Biography Reviews a Remarkable Life for Peace [book review]
Elise Boulding, famed peace scholar and mother of five children, once wrote that we “still don’t know much about producing children who will irrepressibly dream about a better society than the one we have, and obstinately work for its realization.” The irrepressible dreams of Dr. Boulding herself for a better world and her amazing ability […]
Is a Free Society Necessarily a Peaceful Society?
President Bush frequently emphasizes the notion that a free election equals democracy equals peacefulness. A search on the President’s website www.whitehouse.gov for “peaceful societies” returns nearly 4,000 results, and when they are sorted by date, the top 100 in terms of relevance are important public addresses in which he has used that phrase—nearly once a […]
American Anthropologist Focuses on Cooperation versus Competition [journal article review]
Numerous ethnographies of peaceful societies mention, or in some cases focus on, the issues of competition and cooperation. Children are often cited as never playing competitive games; cooperation is the norm for some groups; individualism rather than cooperation or competition prevails in some of the societies. The importance of this issue is frequently reflected in […]
