La agresión en el contexto de la etología y la antropología

Abstract

Objective: toc haracterize the human ethology from E ibl-Eibesfeld’s p erspective and to contrast it with some premises of cultural anthropology, in regard to aggressiveness, by emphasizing the aspects common to both perspectives. 

Methodology: it consists of evaluating an attempt to explain the phenomenon of human aggressiveness that is conceptualized from some functional criteria. Firstly, some arguments of human ethology are established and then, they are compared to the ones used by the dominant tendency in cultural anthropology. 

Results: there are two dissenting anthropological perspectives: one considers the human species are largely determined by biological evolution, and the other one considers the mankind is mainly influenced by his adaptation to the environment. However, both perspectives have common aspects between the innatist and cultural perspectives. These would lead to a comprehensive characterization of aggressiveness.

Conclusions: When thinking of the possible causes of aggressiveness, it is necessary to consider the acceptance of the implications of social learning. There is a clear “saturation” of certain concepts common to both perspectives, which shows that both characterizations of aggressiveness are theoretically closer than it was assumed prima facie.