Waorani

Essay by dirrj April 2005

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There are many different reason why a person may act aggressively towards other human being. The person may act this way because of his background or the way he/she was brought up in life. A person does not; act this way based on natural feeling alone. Is more like a melded, learned behavior. A human being must have both environmental and instinctual factors in order to show aggression. Some of a person's natural instincts are to desire food, reject some things, escape from danger, fight in a dangerous situations or when challenged. As well also sex desire, care for the young, control, and to accept substandard status. This combination of both instincts and environment determines a person's behavior and actions throughout life. This is based on the theory that everything human beings do would have to be learned from other human beings. Aggression must be learned as we grow.

It is not just simply there from the moment of birth. A person behavior is something that is taught to him rather than being an unmanageable instinct. For example, a newborn baby is breathing because it is an uncontrolled reaction. But on the other hand, a father may tell his young son to beat up the ant hill just to gain hunting expirence. As a result, the boy is dealing with the situation by using violence.

I would consider this book an absolute "must read" for anyone interested in human violence. The Waorani were perhaps the most violent people on earth until peace was brokered by missionaries. The y were the terror of their neighbors, but they also killed each other; peace may have saved them from self-destruction. The Robarcheks had previously studied the Semai Senoi of Malaysia, who lived in a similar way--by shifting cultivation in tropical rainforest--but were...