Do Hunter-Gatherers Tell Us About Human Nature?

Session Date: 
May 16, 2014
Speakers: 

When many people want to discover the core of human nature, they turn to those people who allegedly are or represent humanity’s original condition, hunter-gatherers. Do hunter-gatherers have a special ability to reveal human nature? We will examine this question by focusing on the issue of violence: do hunter-gatherers say that we are inherently predisposed to violence, or to peaceful cooperation? Trying to answer this question raises a more general one: is there such a thing as human nature?

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File 2014_05_16_10_Kelly.mp495.17 MB