An exploration of interpersonal violence among Holocene foragers of Southern Africa

Abstract

A common assertion that humans are inherently aggressive toward one another is based in part on interpretation of anthropological evidence, including observational reports of Khoesan immediate-return hunter-gatherers of southern Africa. Bioarchaeological evidence from 446 dated South African Cape Holocene skeletons representing Khoesan ancestors provides an opportunity to review approaches to interpersonal conflict over thousands of years. A synthesis of paleodemographic and skeletal information suggests a complex picture. The pattern noted among descendant Khoesan groups of male killings via poison arrows is not discernable in ancestral demography. Published reports of healed cranial trauma are not geographically localized; most are adult men, and some can be parsimoniously explained as the outcomes of accidents. Skeletons with unhealed perimortem lesions are limited to the southwestern region, at dates around 2500 years ago; most are women and children. The perimortem skeletal trauma is contemporaneous with a period during which a transitory decline in adult stature occurs throughout the Cape but not in the region with the apparent violence. This suggests a novel, transient social pattern in that community. In sum, the disparate patterns of antemortem and perimortem trauma among these Holocene foragers support a narrative that emphasizes the situational nature, and the general rarity, of interpersonal violence.