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State-Sanctioned Punishment as Substitute for Tribal Vengeance

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Punishment; Retaliation; Revenge

Definition

State punishment is an administrative system of punishments that mediate conflicts between aggressors and victims and replaced the previous sanction of tribal revenge.

Introduction

Revenge is considered a taboo in modern societies, but blood revenge is one of the most commonly cited causes of violence and warfare in tribal societies (Chagnon 1988). Evolutionary psychology considers that revenge could be transmitted by primary mechanisms and by cultural transmission, assuming that revenge is a built-in feature of human nature (McCullough 2008).

The definition of revenge is similar to biologists’ definition of punishment. Clutton-Brock and Parker (1995) define punishment as a costly imposition of costs that results in delayed benefits for the punisher. McCullough et al. (2013) claimed that revenge is defined when the imposition of costs at a cost is only is a response to an imposition of harm or a benefit-withholding that was caused...

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References

  • Blick, J. P. (1988). Genocidal warfare in tribal societies as a result of European-induced culture conflict. Man, 23, 654–670.

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  • Boonin, D. (2008). The problem of punishment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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  • Chagnon, N. A. (1988). Life histories, blood revenge, and warfare in a tribal population. Science, 239(4843), 985.

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  • Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Parker, G. A. (1995). Punishment in animal societies. Nature, 373(6511), 209.

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  • McCullough, M. (2008). Beyond revenge: The evolution of the forgiveness instinct. Hoboken: Wiley.

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  • McCullough, M. E., Kurzban, R., & Tabak, B. A. (2013). Putting revenge and forgiveness in an evolutionary context. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(1), 41–58.

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  • Roberts, S. C., & Murray, J. (2013). Applying the revenge system to the criminal justice system and jury decision-making. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(1), 34–35.

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  • Stearns, A. W. (1936). The evolution of punishment. Journal of criminal law and criminology (1931–1951), 27(2), 219–230.

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  • Walen, A. (2016). Retributive justice. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/justice-retributive/

  • Ward, T., & Salmon, K. (2009). The ethics of punishment: Correctional practice implications. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14(4), 239–247.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Quésia F. Cataldo & Damião S. de Almeida Segundo

Authors
  1. Quésia F. Cataldo
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  2. Damião S. de Almeida Segundo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Quésia F. Cataldo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Guilherme S. Lopes

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Cataldo, Q.F., de Almeida Segundo, D.S. (2018). State-Sanctioned Punishment as Substitute for Tribal Vengeance. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2835-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2835-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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