Question

In her 1940 article "Warfare Is Only an Invention—not a Biological Necessity," anthropologist Margaret Mead argues that war is a cultural invention, using ethnographic evidence to make her case. Identify whether or not these are reasons she gives to demonstrate that war is not a necessity, but rather a cultural invention.

Evidence that War Is a Cultural Invention:

Not Evidence that War Is a Cultural Invention:

-Groups settle disputes without going to war.-Groups sometimes go to war to settle disputes.
-Modern warfare is a recent development.-War is decided by elites, not the entire society.

Answer 1

Evidence that war is a culture invention:

Groups settle dispute without going to war.

Groups sometimes go to war to settle dispute.

Not Evidence that war is a cultural invention:

Modern warfare is a recent development.

War is decided by elites, not the entire society

Step-by-step explanation:

Margaret mead's theory of war in her 1940 article titled "Warfare is only an invention not a biological necessity," proposed that war is merely human invention and dismissed the notion that war is the inevitable consequence of human competitiveness because not all societies wage war against themselves.

Mead believe's that warfare is human invention because it does not happen in all the societies around the world, She describes war as conflict between two groups of individuals or society. She also explains that the motivations for wars arises from conflicts between different groups over status, food, fertile land, women which are mostly driven by overpopulation. Mead believes war can be prevented and not a necessity for survival because there are many other societies around the world that have never war in their history of existence.

Answer 2

• Evidence that War Is a Cultural Invention:

1. -Groups settle disputes without going to war
2. -War is decided by elites, not the entire society.

• Not Evidence that War Is a Cultural Invention:

1. -Groups sometimes go to war to settle disputes.
2. -Modern warfare is a recent development.

Step-by-step explanation:

As you already know, wars are generated only to resolve conflicts between regions. However, the results of a war are always disastrous, no matter who won or who won. All regions involved in a war develop strong economic and social problems, leaving their population with a low quality of life.

Wars are not biological needs of human beings, but a cultural invention that states that conflicts must be resolved with violent solutions, when in truth, all these conflicts can be resolved with diplomacy and coherent conversation between government officials.

Based on this, we can affirm that some evidence that wars are not biological needs but cultural inventions, are:

1. -Groups settle disputes without going to war
2. -War is decided by elites, not the entire society.