Your Ancestors Were Killers

It is curious to think that, in some way, we all owe our existence to tiny bands of hardy proto-humans that roved out of Africa and into the Middle East many thousands of years ago. Ultimately, every human being shares ancestry in that relatively small population of hunter-gatherers. The heroes, the storytellers, the wise men: they are all our ancient fathers.

A darker understanding follows this realization: they were all killers and we are their children.

Diamond Observation

In his well-received book, Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond observed something noteworthy about men living under stone age conditions. Not a single man who had made it into middle age did so without having killed someone during his lifetime. This was simply an unfortunate fact of life when you lived in environments with limited resources and a similarly limited number of potential mates.

This is not just a distant fact of ancient life. I have traveled to remote villages of Central America and discovered that the same was true there even just two decades ago. This did not mean that the village was strewn with bodies and every day was warfare. The population was low but, as time passed and conflicts erupted between men, eventually each man felt he had to kill another in self-defense or in order to survive in difficult circumstances. The only ones who could be said to have avoided murdering were those who had been murdered.

This should not be such a shocking observation. When you think about the matter, it makes sense that men in such environments would frequently be involved in mortal conflicts, either for resources, women or even over mere grudges or drunkenness. If you lived long enough, and perhaps in order to live long enough, eventually you run into a situation in which you have to kill.

Why Does This Matter?

This knowledge explains a lot about our world. We often hear people complaining about violence and wondering why it is so hard to stop. Knowledge of history can help us understand our present situations. Violence is hard to stop because it is built in to our genes. We would not have survived long in the primitive world if we did not possess a tough core in each of our personalities that was willing to kill to survive or even simply to get ahead of our neighbors.

Men are now reaching a period in history in which it may be possible to alter our genetic blueprints at fundamental levels. At present, most scientists are focused on eliminating diseases and defects which severally limit the quality of life, It stands to reason that, at some point in the near future, genetic engineers may consider trying to change our DNA in more profound ways.

Eliminating violence may not only be difficult, it may be at cross purposes with the continuance of our race. After all, as we are, mankind is a product of millions of years of evolutionary effort. The universe crafted us over the course of those many millenia. To tinker with the hardware in our DNA which inspires us to violence may leave us unable to manage the challenges that the universe designed us to meet.