Skip to main content

Humans: Within-Group Conflicts

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
  • 71 Accesses

Synonyms

Intragroup conflict; Intragroup killing, within-group killing; Homicide; Murder; Aggression

Definition

Aggressive conflict between individuals within a human group or culture, involving violent interactions, in certain circumstances leading to death of one party and fitness benefits to aggressors.

Introduction

Conflicts of interest and competition are a common feature of social life within groups. Many interindividual altercations lead to escalation of aggression and ultimately to killing. To have an evolutionary understanding of intragroup aggression and killing and assess evidences of adaptive functions, it is important to empirically examine (1) how ubiquitous these phenomena are among human cultures; (2) what social and biological variables explain rates of intragroup aggression and homicide, and if they do so in a predictable way in line with theory; and (3) what consequences these behaviors have.

Review

Registered homicide rates vary greatly among cultures and across...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Boehm, C. (1999). Hierarchy in the forest: The evolution of egalitarian behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M. (2000). The dangerous passion: Why jealousy is as necessary as love and sex. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figueredo, A. J., Jacobs, W. J., Gladden, P. R., Bianchi, J., Patch, E. A., Kavanagh, P. S., & Li, N. P. (2018). Intimate partner violence, interpersonal aggression, and life history strategy. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 12, 1–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knauft, B. M. (1987). Reconsidering violence in simple human societies: Homicide among the Gebusi of New Guinea. Current Anthropology, 28, 457–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCall, G. S., & Shields, N. (2008). Examining the evidence from small-scale societies and early prehistory and implications for modern theories of aggression and violence. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13, 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E., & Cohen, D. (1996). Culture of honor: The psychology of violence in the south. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spierenburg, P. (2008). A history of murder: Personal violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanha, M., Beck, C. J., Figueredo, A. J., & Raghavan, C. (2010). Sex differences in intimate partner violence and the use of coercive control as a motivational factor for intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 1836–1854.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, P. L. (2001). A bioarchaeological perspective on the history of violence. Annual Review of Anthropology, 30, 573–596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heitor B. F. Fernandes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Fernandes, H.B.F., Peñaherrera-Aguirre, M., Zerbe, J., Figueredo, A.J. (2018). Humans: Within-Group Conflicts. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3779-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3779-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics