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Anthropologist Raymond C. Kelly's work, notably in Warless Societies and the Origin of War, examines whether collective violence is a primordial part of human nature or a relatively recent cultural development that emerged in prehistory.Core Concepts and Research FocusChallenging Prevalent Theories: Kelly contrasts peaceful and warlike hunter-gatherer societies to argue that war is not an inevitable or universal aspect of human existence.<



Social Organization and Segmentatio• Social Organization and Segmentation: He posits that the key difference between peaceful and combative groups is structural. "Unsegmented" societies- those lacking rigid group identities, formal boundaries, and corporate social hostility-tend to be warless. • The Role of Social Substitutability: Kelly argues that war and feuding require "social substitutability," where an individual member of an enemy group can be killed in retaliation for the actions of a completely different member. Peaceful societies lack this logic. • Prehistoric and Archaeological Evidence: He evaluates Upper Paleolithic cave paintings, ancient burials, and specific regional transitions in Europe and the Middle East to pinpoint when and how collective lethal violence arose. If you'd like, I can provide more details on: • His specific theories regarding resource abundance vs. scarcity • How his framework contrasts with other