[gen220]

I encourage you to explore the early history of the pre-Roman Empire peoples. These were largely mythologies that the romans retroactively constructed for themselves (i.e. they had the opportunity to omit the raping and kidnapping in retellings, but chose not to).

It’s full of “and then tribe X invaded and the land of Y, took their women and enslaved their men”. Back and forth for centuries. This behavior was cyclical, inevitable, and universal, until violence was monopolized and institutionalized.

We’ve come a long way, I guess. Still have work to do.

[tsimionescu]

I think GP was thinking about early humans, back when other species of humans still existed.

From what I understand, the most common view is that in hunter-gatherer times there was much less inter-group violence than there was after the advent of agriculture, simply because there was much less of a notion of territory and any need to defend it before agriculture was a thing.

[lebuffon]

"pre-Roman Empire peoples"

Do you mean the Bible?

"Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you,...? Deut. 20:16..

[adenozine]

That's an interesting scripture for this situation! Very insightful.

I was thinking actually quite a bit earlier than a lot of the Hebrew historical times, like species that were more apelike.