---A Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs by Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg B.A. Columbia University Submitted to the Department of Political Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 1997 @ 1997 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. Signature Redacted Signature of A u thor............................................................. ........................................... Deparient of Political Science Signature Redacted May 2,1997 C ertified by................... ................................. .. Joshua Cohen Professor of Philosophy and Political Science Signature Redacted Thesis Supervisor A ccepted by............... .... .......... .. .. .. Barry R. Posen Professor of Political Science Chairman, Graduate Program Committee JUL 15 1997 AflCHNES #1 Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs by Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg Submitted to the Department of Political Science on May 2, 1997, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Abstract This essay concerns the theory of the conditions under which war might end. Chapter 1 introduces the topic. Chapter 2 presents the hypotheses that a modest change in moral beliefs could catalyze the conditions needed to end war; and that a more profound change in moral beliefs, likely to follow the initial abolition, could prevent the future re-institution of war. Chapters 3-6 give theoretical and empirical evidence to support these hypotheses, and address three factors that are widely believed to preclude the abolition of war: innate aggressiveness, moral beliefs about ends that justify the use of armed force, and the tendency of political institutions, including peace-enforcement institutions, to collapse under stress. Chapters 3-6 focus on the relative weight of learned moral beliefs and innate aggressive impulses in causing and preventing various forms of socially-sanctioned and nonsanctioned violence. These chapters present extensive evidence from various branches of psychology to show that while innate aggressive impulses can lead to nonsanctioned individual and mob violence, culturally-determined moral beliefs dominate innate aggressiveness in accounting for organized, socially- sanctioned, large-group violence. Then, surveying various forms of socially- sanctioned violence, they show that the moral beliefs which support such practices tend to change over time, leading to the permanent abolition of previously sanctioned forms of violence. The inference is drawn that in the same manner, the declining tolerance for war could lead to its abolition. Previously morally sanctioned and institutionalized but now abolished forms of large-group violence include ritual cannibalism, human sacrifice, slavery, and gruesome forms of corporal punishment. The case of ritual cannibalism is reviewed in depth and other cases are reviewed more briefly to assess the importance and variability of moral belief in the conduct of socially-sanctioned forms of violence, and to illuminate the historical precedents for the potential abolition of war. The essay concludes with a discussion of the implications of the rise and demise of successive forms of socially-sanctioned large-group violence for anthropological theories of cultural evolution and state formation. Thesis Supevisor: Joshua Cohen Title: Professor of Philosophy and Political Science Abstract 3 Biographical Note 4 Acknowledgments 4 Preface 9 PART I. TOWARD A THEORY OF PEACE 11 Chapter 1. The Idea of a Theory of Peace 13 1.1. Introduction 13 1.2. Defining the End of War 17 1.3. Standards for the Theory of Peace 20 Chapter 2. Conditions for the Abolition of War 25 2.1. Introduction 25 2.2. Main Hypotheses 29 'Least-change' Conditions for the Abolition of War 29 Moral beliefs capable of catalyzing the initial abolition of war 29 Moral beliefs capable of maintaining peace indefinitely 35 Prospects for Achieving the Catalytic Threshold of Commitment: Democracy and Defensive Nonviolence 36 Defensive nonviolence and individual-centered politics 36 Decentralized international governance 38 The Relationship between Moral Belief and Other Factors in Accounting for the Rise and Demise of War 40 2.3. Comparison with Other Approaches 42 Complementary Approaches 42 Competing Approaches 46 Unqualified commitment to nonviolence 46 Political freedom and economic justice 48 Power balancing 51 Conclusions 52 PART II. SOCIALLY-SANCTIONED VIOLENCE 53 Chapter 3. The Roles of Innate Impulses and Learned Moral Beliefs in Individual and Group Violence 55 3.1. Introduction 55 Skepticism about the Abolition of War 57 Evidence for the Key Role of Moral Beliefs in Institutionalized Forms of Group Violence 58 3.2. Sources and Features of Violence by Individuals 60 Physiologically-based Aspects of Aggressive Impulses and Violent Behavior by Individuals 62 The Impact of Social Learning on Predispositions to and Choices of Violent Behavior by Individuals 66 Forsberg, Contents - page 6 Parenting and early childhood development of the internalized ability to inhibit violent behavior 67 Socialization to permit or inhibit violent behavior in older children, teenagers, and young adults 69 3.3. Sources and Features of Violence by Groups 71 The Domain of Human-on-Human Violence 71 Table 3-1. Shared and Differing Propensities to and Context for Violence among Humans and Other Animals 73 Table 3-2. List of Forms of Assault and Killing Illustrating Differences in Scale and Legality 73 3.4. Motives for Participation in Institutionalized Group Violence 74 Table 3-3. Mapping the Domain of Human-on-Human Violence: Illustrative List of Forms of Violence Showing Differences in Scale, Legality, and Social Approval 75 Chapter 4. Socially-Sanctioned Group Violence: Features, Examples, and Sources 79 4.1. Introduction 79 4.2. Some Socially-sanctioned Forms of Physical Violence and Violation 83 4.3. Human Sacrifice, Slavery, and Corporal Punishment 85 Human Sacrifice 86 Slavery and Related Conditions 90 Corporal Punishment 93 4.4. The Declining Tolerance for Violence 95 4.5. The Rise of Institutionalized Forms of Violence 96 4.6. The Demise of Institutionalized Forms of Violence 98 4.7. Goals, Efficacy, and Morality in Institutionalized Violence and Violation 101 Chapter 5. Ritual Cannibalism: A Case Study of Socially-Sanctioned Group Violence 105 5.1. Introduction 105 The Meaning of Ritual Cannibalism 105 The Debate over the Existence of Ritual Cannibalism 106 The Organization of the Chapter 108 5.2. The Global Incidence and Correlates of Cannibalism 108 Table 5-1. Quantitative Results of Volhard's and Sanday's Global Surveys of Reported Cannibal Practices 110 Table 5-2. Results of Sanday's Analysis of Factors Affecting the Occurrence of Cannibalism 111 Table 5-3. The Global Distribution of Cultures and Proportions of Simple Cultures in the Volhard, Murdock and White, and Sanday Samples 113 Forsberg, Contents - page 7 Table 5-4. The North American Tribes coded for Cannibalism by Volhard and Sanday, Compared with All North American Tribes, Grouped by Language and Region 117 5.3. The Purposes and Forms of Cannibalism 122 5.4. Morality and Affect in Customary Cannibalism 125 Table 5-5. Chong's Analysis of Reported Incidents of Cannibalism in China by Purpose and Form 126 5.5. The Demise of Customary Cannibalism 127 Chapter 6. Sanctioned Violence, Morality, and Cultural Evolution 129 6.1. Introduction 129 6.2. The Pattern of Successive Forms of Socially-Sanctioned Violence 130 The Forms of Social Organization and the Forms of Sanctioned Violence 130 6.3. Directed Cultural Evolution and Priorities among Human Needs 133 Costs and Benefits of the Shift from Small Hunter-gatherer Groups to Large Warring States 134 Table 6-1. Comparative Historical Estimates of World Population Size (in millions) and Life Expectancy, 40,000 BC to 1850 AD 137 A Symmetrical Transition from Warring States to a Non-warring International System 140 6.4. The End of Socially-sanctioned Forms of Violence 144 Appendix. The Debate on the Existence of Cannibalism 147 Scholarly Studies of Cannibalism 147 Other Bodies of Literature about Cannibalism 150 William Arens and His Critics: A Comprehensive Review 158 Bibliography 169 PREFACE This essay is part of a larger project to produce a fully developed theory of the conditions under which world peace might be established and maintained. To work on that project within the framework of a Ph.D. dissertation, I have adopted a format which is somewhat unusual. In Part I of this essay, 'Toward a Theory of Peace,' I set out the main ideas of the general theory. Chapter 1 introduces the larger project and relates it to current political theory. Chapter 2 presents the main hypotheses. Then in Part II, 'Socially-sanctioned Violence,' comprising Chapters 3-6, I develop some of the main ideas set out in Chapter 2, leaving others for further study at a later time. Part II presents theoretical and empirical evidence to support two of the main hypotheses put forward in Chapter 2: that a modest change in moral beliefs could catalyze the conditions needed to end war; and that a more profound change in moral beliefs, likely to follow the initial abolition, could prevent the future re- institution of war. At the same time, Part II responds to three of the four main reasons to believe that war cannot be abolished. These are: human beings have innate aggressive instincts that