Thomas Gregor

A Natural History of Peace: with Commentary Thomas Gregor

Jacket Description/Back: This book provides the first broadly interdisciplinary examination of peace as viewed from the perspectives of social anthropology, primatology, archeology, psychology, political science, and economics. In its broad perspective and conclusions, this book makes a fresh and timely contribution to our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of peace. It will become a basic building block in the further development of the rapidly emerging field of peace studies. Marc Notes: Conference; Announced in cloth at $45.00 mediators: nine stars the human sky. Publisher Marketing: A stimulating and innovative consideration of the concept, causes, and practice of peace in societies both ancient and modern, human and primate. We know a great deal about aggression, conflict, and war, but relatively little about peace, partially because it has been such a scarce phenomenon throughout history and in our own times. Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace requires special relationships, structures, and attitudes to promote and protect it. "A Natural History of Peace" provides the first broadly interdisciplinary examination of peace as viewed from the perspectives of social anthropology, primatology, archeology, psychology, political science, and economics. Among other notable features, this volume offers: a major theory concerning the evolution of peace and violence through human history; an in-depth comparative study of peaceful cultures with the goal of discovering what it is that makes them peaceful; one of the earliest reports of a new theory of the organization and collapse of ancient Maya civilization; a comparative examination of peace from the perspective of change, including the transition of one of the world's most violent societies to a relatively peaceful culture, and the decision-making process of terrorists who abandon violence; and a theory of political change that sees the conclusion of wars as uniquely creative periods in the evolution of peace among modern nations.

Contributor Bio:  Gregor, Thomas Thomas A. Gregor, Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University and author of two volumes on Amazonian peoples, last edited "The Natural History of Peace" (1996). Donald Tuzin is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. His most recent book is "The Cassowary's Revenge "(1997).