The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
(NIMBioS) is now accepting applications for its Investigative Workshop,
" <http://www.nimbios.org/workshops/WS_warfare>Evolution and Warfare,"
<http://www.nimbios.org/workshops/WS_warfare> to be held September
16-18, 2015, at NIMBioS.
*Objectives: *Warfare is a widespread and arguably universal practice of
human societies. While war's origins continue to be debated, warfare has
occurred in most historically documented societies, from
hunter-gatherers to nation-states. Its prehistoric traces can be found
in fortifications, weapons, mass graves, and skeletal trauma. Given that
it is a major source of mortality, warfare has potentially acted as a
powerful source of selection for both biological and cultural evolution.
In a reprise of the past – and in contrast to force-on-force,
hierarchically organized wars among great powers – conflict today takes
a number of decentralized forms, from urban gang fights to livestock
raids, and from clan warfare to leaderless resistance and terrorism.
Suggestive parallels exist between current patterns of warfare and those
that typified subsistence-level societies. Consequently, examining
psychological mechanisms that evolved under ancestral warfare conditions
may shed important light on what motivates individuals during modern
decentralized wars and why people resort to violence in intergroup
conflicts. Given the availability of data from contemporary societies
and the great damage caused by violent conflict, advancing our
understanding of such conflict is both tractable and important. In this
workshop, we will begin working toward an integrated approach to the
study of warfare under decentralized or only loosely controlled
conditions, combining empirical data, evolutionary theory, and
mathematical models. We envision developing working hypotheses to answer
several key questions about between-group conflict in general, and the
nature of ‘decentralized warfare’ in particular. These hypotheses will
be informed by evolutionary theory using data from diverse conflict
settings. Our hypotheses will be articulated in a framework amenable to
formal modeling that will point the way toward a multi-level predictive
understanding of warfare.
*Location: *NIMBioS at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
*Co-Organizers:
*
* Biology: Michael L. Wilson
<http://www.cbs.umn.edu/explore/departments/eeb/faculty-research/directory/michael-wilson>,
Univ. of Minnesota
* Anthropology: Luke Glowacki <http://scholar.harvard.edu/glowacki>,
Harvard Univ.
* Defense Analysis: Anna Simons <http://faculty.nps.edu/asimons/>,
Naval Postgraduate School
* Mathematics: Sergey Gavrilets <http://www.tiem.utk.edu/%7Egavrila/>,
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
For more information about the workshop and a link to the online
application form, go to http://www.nimbios.org/workshops/WS_warfare
Participation in the workshop is by application only. Individuals with a
strong interest in the topic are encouraged to apply, and successful
applicants will be notified within two weeks of the application
deadline. If needed, financial support for travel, meals, and lodging is
available for workshop attendees.
*Application deadline:* May 17, 2015
The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
(NIMBioS) (http://www.nimbios.org) brings together researchers from
around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to
investigate solutions to basic and applied problems in the life
sciences. NIMBioS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation,
through NSF Award #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The
University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
#
*****************************
Catherine Crawley, Ph.D.
Communications Manager
National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)
University of Tennessee
1122 Volunteer Blvd, Ste. 106
Knoxville, TN 37996
e [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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