Nonkilling Approaches to the Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence

Diogenes, the journal of UNESCO’s International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences founded in 1952, has published a seminal paper by Professor Emeritus Leslie E. Sponsel on “The Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence” from the perspective of a nonkilling paradigm shift. The article appeared in volume 61, published in 2017, and argues for the relevance of anthropology for a paradigm shift from killing to nonkilling following the pioneering ideas of Glenn D. Paige. The article can be downloaded here.

The article presents some of the accumulating scientific evidence proves that nonviolent and peaceful societies not only exist, but are actually the norm throughout human prehistory and history. This scientific fact is elucidated through a historical inventory of the most important documentation. Ethnographic cases are summarized of the Semai as a nonviolent society, the transition from killing to nonkilling of the Waorani, and the critiques of the representation of the Yanomami as a killing society. Several of the most important cross-cultural studies are discussed. The assertions of some of the most vocal opponents to this paradigm are refuted. The systemic cultural and ideological bias privileging violence and war over nonviolence and peace is documented.