Homicide and Cultural Evolution

Homicide rates are suitable materials for the study of “cultural evolution,” because they vary dramatically between societies (hence, are “cultural”) and change gradually rather than saccadically (hence, “evolve”). Sociological models of the sources of variation in homicide rates (“subcultures of violence”; demographic change; “legitimation of violence”; mass media effects) are criticized for inattention to the social context of violence and to the individual motives of the protagonists. Models of culture change that emphasize “transmission” are criticized for treating the culture-hearing person as a passive vessel rather than an active strategist. A satisfactory theory of the “cultural evolution” of violence awaits satisfactory theories of how people apprehend their interests and how they pursue them.