Anthropological perspectives on aggression: Sex differences and cultural variation

Abstract

The purpose of this special issue of Aggressive Behavior is to present various topics and perspectives on the anthropology of aggression and conflict. First, a brief introduction to the articles in this issue is provided. Second, anthropological findings on sex differences in aggression are considered. The cross-cultural pattern is for males to engage in more frequent and more severe physical aggression than females. These observed sex differences are in accordance with the evolutionary concepts of sexual selection and parental investment. Simultaneously, it is clear that a host of proximate cultural influences also affects levels and styles of aggression in both females and males. Anthropological findings related to the indirect aggression concept also are discussed and tentatively related to gender. In the third section of this article, the nature and ramifications of the tremendous cross-cultural variation in aggression are explored. It is clear that nonviolent cultures exist, as do a range of more violent ones. It is also clear, as illustrated in several examples, that aggressive cultures can become dramatically more peaceful, and vice versa. Aggression can be viewed within the broader frame of conflict management; most cultures, in fact, use a variety of mechanisms for dealing with conflict that do not involve aggression. In addition, consideration is given to intracultural variability in aggression, the multidimensionality of aggression, cultural meaning (beliefs) and aggression, and the controversy over actor-based (emic) vs. Observer-based (etic) interpretations of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 24:81–95, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 59 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.