Judith Hand
Encyclopedia
Judith L. Hand is an evolutionary biologist, animal behaviorist (ethologist), novelist, and pioneer in the emerging field of peace
ethology
. She writes on a variety of topics related to ethology, including the biological and evolutionary roots of war
, gender differences
in conflict resolution
, empowering women, and abolishing war
. Her lectures include recent developments in peace research, which may help us prevent war.
Her book, Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace is an in-depth exploration of human gender differences with regard to aggression
.
Her web site, A Future Without War, a book by the same name, and a paper, To Abolish War. are devoted to the concept of and requirements for abolishing war. The website provides an extensive collection of essays and book reviews, issues a topical newsletter, includes a blog, and is a gateway to other related sites.
Hand has been a member of the International Society for Human Ethology (ISHE), since its inception in 1972. ISHE is a professional organization whose members study human behavior and come from such diverse disciplines as biology
, anthropology
and psychology
. The term "peace ethology" was coined by ethologist, Peter Verbeek, as a subdiscipline of human ethology, one that is concerned with issues of human conflict, conflict resolution, reconciliation, war, peacemaking
, and peacekeeping
behavior.
Verbeek suggests that peace ethology is uniquely positioned to make an important contribution to the newly emerging science of peace. Recent studies show that young children display peacemaking behavior that is remarkably similar in form and timing to peacemaking observed in non-human primates and other animals. In the past, researchers assumed that peace emerges, almost by default, when violence or aggression ceases. Studies on the behavioral biology of aggression emphasized what led up to and happened during competition and aggression. Few studies investigated what happened afterwards. In 1979, Frans de Waal
and Marc van Roosmalen
found that chimpanzee opponents tend to seek each other out for peaceful contact shortly after aggression has ceased. Three decades of studies indicate that peacemaking, like aggression, is a natural aspect of primate social behavior. Peace is now seen as a concept worthy of study in its own right.
Hand is a social activist committed to the abolition of war. Her argument for the ability of humans to achieve this goal is developed in Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace and her website. Her argument rests on several controversial premises: 1) that while the roots of war do lie in aspects of male biology, war itself is not an inherited and therefore inescapable feature of human behavior, but instead is primarily the result of cultural factors; 2) that women are natural allies of nonviolent conflict resolution
, and that excluding women from governing is an underlying condition that favors war because male inclinations for dominance
using aggression go unchecked; 3) that to abolish war, a key requirement is the global empowerment of women (educational, financial, legal, political and religious). Other requirements for abolishing war and how long such a campaign might take are also explained on her website and in the paper, To Abolish War.
in Santa Monica, CA. While still teaching, she began a Ph.D. program at UCLA and in 1979 was awarded a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior, also called Ethology
(her subfields were Ornithology
and Primatology
). Her doctoral dissertation compared vocalizations of two populations of gulls (Larus occidentalis), and the results were used to reclassify the gull population in the Gulf of California
as a separate species, (Larus livens), not just a subspecies
of Larus occidentalis.
After completing her doctorate, she continued behavioral research as a Smithsonian Post-doctoral Fellow at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
(1979–1980). This research resulted in published papers on conflict resolution highlighting the use of egalitarian behavior to resolve conflicts. For example, mated gull pairs in conflict over nesting duties or access to choice food used such methods as sharing, first-come-first-served, and negotiation rather than the commonly studied dominance and subordination behavior to resolve conflicts. Female gulls of the species she studied are always smaller than their mates. In her theoretical paper in the Quarterly Review of Biology (Vol. 61, 1986) she used a game theory approach to introduce the concept of “leverage” to explain why smaller individuals are sometimes able to establish an egalitarian relationship with much larger individuals, ones that could easily dominate them physically. This paper also introduced the concept of “spheres of dominance” to explain why, in a given relationship between two individuals, the relative payoffs to survival or reproduction depends on the context of a conflict. Different contexts will provide different payoffs to each individual and consequently determine which individual of the pair will be dominant in a given context, instead of one individual being dominant over the other in all contexts.
From 1980 to 1985, she was a Research Associate and Lecturer in the UCLA biology department teaching Animal Behavior and Ornithology. In 1987, she moved from Los Angeles
to San Diego and spent several years writing fiction.
In 2003, however, she returned to ethology and self-published Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. The book draws from fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, primatology, behavior, ornithology, cultural anthropology
, neurophysiology
, and history
. Hand has expanded concepts from Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace into essays on her website site, AFutureWithoutWar.org.
, Wheaton, Illinois
, in 1961, graduating summa cum laude, having majored in cultural anthropology
before switching to zoology
. In 1963, she earned an M.A.
degree in general physiology
at UCLA, after which she briefly worked as a laboratory technician at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. In 1963-1964, Hand was a research technician at the Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychiatry
in Munich
, Germany
, where she assisted in brain surgeries designed to evoke vocalizations in squirrel monkeys; she published her first scientific papers on these behavioral experiments. From 1965 through 1966, at the Pediatrics
Department of the UCLA Medical School, she was head technician in a physiological laboratory studying bilirubin
metabolism
.
to San Diego in 1987, Hand turned her attention to writing fiction. In 2001, she self-published the novel Voice of the Goddess. In her book Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, Hand states that she was subsequently drawn back into the subject of war and women while promoting this book. The novel’s background is the Minoan
Culture which Hand portrays as woman-centered, goddess-worshipping, and without wars of aggression, a view she considers valid but which remains controversial.
In 2004, two of her novels were published by New York publishing houses, the first, an historical epic set against the background of the Trojan War
and the second, a contemporary women’s action adventure. More published novels soon followed; all featuring strong heroines struggling in epic conflicts in partnership with equally strong heroes.
: armed conflict between groups where combatants kill members of the other group indiscriminately Murder is not war, nor is feuding (or self-redress) where revenge or punishment is exacted on specific individuals.
: 1) the strong tendency for aggressive male group bonding that serves for many kinds of hunting, for group defense from predators, and for survival during natural disasters; 2) the establishment of social hierarchy, using force if necessary; and 3) willingness of males in a group to sacrifice themselves to protect the group, in some cases even to the death. Hand coined the term “hyper-alpha” for a category of individual, male or female, who so desires to dominate others that they are willing to kill or to raise an army to kill other people for them. These three characteristically male traits, which served us well during our prehistoric past, can be used to our detriment by a “hyper-alpha” (a male, group of males, or rarely a female). Unless the group or culture erects restraints on warmongering, hyper-alphas can use these traits to manipulate other males so as to raise an army and go to war. Hyper-alphas are, according to Hand, a small minority in any population, and they are not to be confused with leaders sometimes described as alpha males. Hyper-alphas are defined by their willingness to kill any number of anonymous individuals to achieve domination.
was that of nomadic hunter-gatherers. In Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, Hand argues that a critical element in keeping war in check among these nomadic hunter-gatherer groups was a strong female preference for "social stability." This evolved female preference for social stability is expressed in a number of traits more characteristic of women than men. Most especially with respect to war, in a strong female proclivity for negotiation
, compromise
, “keeping the peace,” and mediation
—as opposed to killing—to resolve differences. This preference is also reflected in a greater female tendency toward prospicience—a forward looking attitude which fosters anticipating and heading off potential conflicts. In most nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures, which are typically egalitarian cultures, women have strong influences in deciding group behavior. Hand suggests that the female preference for social stability tends to suppress both male inclinations to make war and any other social turmoil within their group that risks the death of women or their offspring.
(Pan paniscus), such as hidden-ovulation
(there are no outward signs of a female's fertile period), forward placed clitoris
, and continuous receptivity (females can mate at any time during theirestrous or menstrual cycle
), that bonobos are a better model for students of human evolution than the highly aggressive and sometimes violent chimpanzee
(Pan troglodytes). Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace outlines the selection pressures favoring the female preference for social stability and the implications of the difference in male and female responses with respect to physical violence and war for contemporary cultures.
, and they continue to the present.
Although war has ancient biological roots, Hand argues that it is currently fostered primarily by our social environments—by our cultures. War can be abolished if humanity is willing to engage in major cultural transformation. On Her website, AFutureWithoutWar (AFWW), Hand explores nine “cornerstones of a plan of action to create a "warfare transition,” that is, a shift toward abolishing war that could be as swift as the demographic transition
of the mid-twentieth century.
in Torrance, California
, in 1957. In 1967, she married Los Angeles police detective, Harold M. Hand, and remained married to him until his death in 1996. They had no children.
"If women around the world in the twenty-first century would get their act together they could, partnered with men of like mind, shift the direction of world history to create a future without war." In A Future Without War: the Strategy of a Warfare Transition, p. 53.
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
ethology
Ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology....
. She writes on a variety of topics related to ethology, including the biological and evolutionary roots of war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, gender differences
Gender differences
A sex difference is a distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics associated with either males or females of a species. These can be of several types, including direct and indirect. Direct being the direct result of differences prescribed by the Y-chromosome, and indirect being...
in conflict resolution
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...
, empowering women, and abolishing war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
. Her lectures include recent developments in peace research, which may help us prevent war.
Her book, Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace is an in-depth exploration of human gender differences with regard to aggression
Aggression
In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...
.
Her web site, A Future Without War, a book by the same name, and a paper, To Abolish War. are devoted to the concept of and requirements for abolishing war. The website provides an extensive collection of essays and book reviews, issues a topical newsletter, includes a blog, and is a gateway to other related sites.
Hand has been a member of the International Society for Human Ethology (ISHE), since its inception in 1972. ISHE is a professional organization whose members study human behavior and come from such diverse disciplines as biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. The term "peace ethology" was coined by ethologist, Peter Verbeek, as a subdiscipline of human ethology, one that is concerned with issues of human conflict, conflict resolution, reconciliation, war, peacemaking
Peacemaking
Peacemaking is a form of conflict resolution which focuses on establishing equal power relationships that will be robust enough to forestall future conflict, and establishing some means of agreeing on ethical decisions within a community that has previously had conflict. In order to do so there...
, and peacekeeping
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
behavior.
Verbeek suggests that peace ethology is uniquely positioned to make an important contribution to the newly emerging science of peace. Recent studies show that young children display peacemaking behavior that is remarkably similar in form and timing to peacemaking observed in non-human primates and other animals. In the past, researchers assumed that peace emerges, almost by default, when violence or aggression ceases. Studies on the behavioral biology of aggression emphasized what led up to and happened during competition and aggression. Few studies investigated what happened afterwards. In 1979, Frans de Waal
Frans de Waal
Fransiscus Bernardus Maria de Waal, PhD , is a Dutch primatologist and ethologist. He is the Charles Howard Candler professor of Primate Behavior in the Emory University psychology department in Atlanta, Georgia, and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research...
and Marc van Roosmalen
Marc van Roosmalen
Dr. Marc van Roosmalen is a Brazilian primatologist of Dutch birth living in Manaus in Brazil. He was elected as one of the "Heroes of the Planet" by Time Magazine in 2000...
found that chimpanzee opponents tend to seek each other out for peaceful contact shortly after aggression has ceased. Three decades of studies indicate that peacemaking, like aggression, is a natural aspect of primate social behavior. Peace is now seen as a concept worthy of study in its own right.
Hand is a social activist committed to the abolition of war. Her argument for the ability of humans to achieve this goal is developed in Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace and her website. Her argument rests on several controversial premises: 1) that while the roots of war do lie in aspects of male biology, war itself is not an inherited and therefore inescapable feature of human behavior, but instead is primarily the result of cultural factors; 2) that women are natural allies of nonviolent conflict resolution
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...
, and that excluding women from governing is an underlying condition that favors war because male inclinations for dominance
Dominance
Dominance may refer to:* Dominance , an aspect of virtual inheritance in the C++ programming language* Dominance , in economics, the degree of inequality in market share distribution...
using aggression go unchecked; 3) that to abolish war, a key requirement is the global empowerment of women (educational, financial, legal, political and religious). Other requirements for abolishing war and how long such a campaign might take are also explained on her website and in the paper, To Abolish War.
Research
From 1967 to 1975, Hand taught high school biology at Santa Monica High SchoolSanta Monica High School
Santa Monica High School, informally known as SAMOHI, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1884, it is one of the oldest high schools in the state....
in Santa Monica, CA. While still teaching, she began a Ph.D. program at UCLA and in 1979 was awarded a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior, also called Ethology
Ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology....
(her subfields were Ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
and Primatology
Primatology
Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology, as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos...
). Her doctoral dissertation compared vocalizations of two populations of gulls (Larus occidentalis), and the results were used to reclassify the gull population in the Gulf of California
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...
as a separate species, (Larus livens), not just a subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of Larus occidentalis.
After completing her doctorate, she continued behavioral research as a Smithsonian Post-doctoral Fellow at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
(1979–1980). This research resulted in published papers on conflict resolution highlighting the use of egalitarian behavior to resolve conflicts. For example, mated gull pairs in conflict over nesting duties or access to choice food used such methods as sharing, first-come-first-served, and negotiation rather than the commonly studied dominance and subordination behavior to resolve conflicts. Female gulls of the species she studied are always smaller than their mates. In her theoretical paper in the Quarterly Review of Biology (Vol. 61, 1986) she used a game theory approach to introduce the concept of “leverage” to explain why smaller individuals are sometimes able to establish an egalitarian relationship with much larger individuals, ones that could easily dominate them physically. This paper also introduced the concept of “spheres of dominance” to explain why, in a given relationship between two individuals, the relative payoffs to survival or reproduction depends on the context of a conflict. Different contexts will provide different payoffs to each individual and consequently determine which individual of the pair will be dominant in a given context, instead of one individual being dominant over the other in all contexts.
From 1980 to 1985, she was a Research Associate and Lecturer in the UCLA biology department teaching Animal Behavior and Ornithology. In 1987, she moved from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to San Diego and spent several years writing fiction.
In 2003, however, she returned to ethology and self-published Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. The book draws from fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, primatology, behavior, ornithology, cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
, neurophysiology
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
, and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
. Hand has expanded concepts from Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace into essays on her website site, AFutureWithoutWar.org.
Education and Work History
Hand earned a B.S. degree from Wheaton CollegeWheaton College (Illinois)
Wheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States...
, Wheaton, Illinois
Wheaton, Illinois
Wheaton is an affluent community located in DuPage County, Illinois, approximately west of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Wheaton is the county seat of DuPage County...
, in 1961, graduating summa cum laude, having majored in cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
before switching to zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
. In 1963, she earned an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in general physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
at UCLA, after which she briefly worked as a laboratory technician at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. In 1963-1964, Hand was a research technician at the Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychiatry
Neuropsychiatry
Neuropsychiatry is the branch of medicine dealing with mental disorders attributable to diseases of the nervous system. It preceded the current disciplines of psychiatry and neurology, in as much as psychiatrists and neurologists had a common training....
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where she assisted in brain surgeries designed to evoke vocalizations in squirrel monkeys; she published her first scientific papers on these behavioral experiments. From 1965 through 1966, at the Pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
Department of the UCLA Medical School, she was head technician in a physiological laboratory studying bilirubin
Bilirubin
Bilirubin is the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism. Heme is found in hemoglobin, a principal component of red blood cells. Bilirubin is excreted in bile and urine, and elevated levels may indicate certain diseases...
metabolism
Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...
.
Fiction: Strong Heroines in Historical Epics and Action Thrillers
After moving from Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to San Diego in 1987, Hand turned her attention to writing fiction. In 2001, she self-published the novel Voice of the Goddess. In her book Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, Hand states that she was subsequently drawn back into the subject of war and women while promoting this book. The novel’s background is the Minoan
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
Culture which Hand portrays as woman-centered, goddess-worshipping, and without wars of aggression, a view she considers valid but which remains controversial.
In 2004, two of her novels were published by New York publishing houses, the first, an historical epic set against the background of the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
and the second, a contemporary women’s action adventure. More published novels soon followed; all featuring strong heroines struggling in epic conflicts in partnership with equally strong heroes.
Definition of War
When examining the reasons humans kill one another, Hand draws a distinction between war, murder and revenge killings. She uses the definition of war as described by the anthropologist Douglas P. FryDouglas P. Fry
Douglas P. Fry , is a docent and professor of anthropology, teacher in the Faculty of Social and Caring Sciences at Åbo Akademi University in Finland and adjunct research scientist in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona.A renowned American anthropologist and...
: armed conflict between groups where combatants kill members of the other group indiscriminately Murder is not war, nor is feuding (or self-redress) where revenge or punishment is exacted on specific individuals.
Biological Roots of War
Hand argues that the biological roots of war stem from three aspects of male biology, each a holdover from the PleistocenePleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
: 1) the strong tendency for aggressive male group bonding that serves for many kinds of hunting, for group defense from predators, and for survival during natural disasters; 2) the establishment of social hierarchy, using force if necessary; and 3) willingness of males in a group to sacrifice themselves to protect the group, in some cases even to the death. Hand coined the term “hyper-alpha” for a category of individual, male or female, who so desires to dominate others that they are willing to kill or to raise an army to kill other people for them. These three characteristically male traits, which served us well during our prehistoric past, can be used to our detriment by a “hyper-alpha” (a male, group of males, or rarely a female). Unless the group or culture erects restraints on warmongering, hyper-alphas can use these traits to manipulate other males so as to raise an army and go to war. Hyper-alphas are, according to Hand, a small minority in any population, and they are not to be confused with leaders sometimes described as alpha males. Hyper-alphas are defined by their willingness to kill any number of anonymous individuals to achieve domination.
Female Preference for Social Stability
The most common cultural adaptation of human populations during the long and early phases of our evolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
was that of nomadic hunter-gatherers. In Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, Hand argues that a critical element in keeping war in check among these nomadic hunter-gatherer groups was a strong female preference for "social stability." This evolved female preference for social stability is expressed in a number of traits more characteristic of women than men. Most especially with respect to war, in a strong female proclivity for negotiation
Negotiation
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy...
, compromise
Compromise
To compromise is to make a deal where one person gives up part of his or her demand.In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving variations from an original goal or desire.Extremism is often considered as...
, “keeping the peace,” and mediation
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...
—as opposed to killing—to resolve differences. This preference is also reflected in a greater female tendency toward prospicience—a forward looking attitude which fosters anticipating and heading off potential conflicts. In most nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures, which are typically egalitarian cultures, women have strong influences in deciding group behavior. Hand suggests that the female preference for social stability tends to suppress both male inclinations to make war and any other social turmoil within their group that risks the death of women or their offspring.
Bonobos as a Social Model for Humans
She suggests, based on behavior and physical traits of the relatively non-violent bonoboBonobo
The bonobo , Pan paniscus, previously called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee...
(Pan paniscus), such as hidden-ovulation
Ovulation
Ovulation is the process in a female's menstrual cycle by which a mature ovarian follicle ruptures and discharges an ovum . Ovulation also occurs in the estrous cycle of other female mammals, which differs in many fundamental ways from the menstrual cycle...
(there are no outward signs of a female's fertile period), forward placed clitoris
Clitoris
The clitoris is a sexual organ that is present only in female mammals. In humans, the visible button-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra and vagina. Unlike the penis, which is homologous to the clitoris, the clitoris does not...
, and continuous receptivity (females can mate at any time during theirestrous or menstrual cycle
Menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is the scientific term for the physiological changes that can occur in fertile women for the purpose of sexual reproduction. This article focuses on the human menstrual cycle....
), that bonobos are a better model for students of human evolution than the highly aggressive and sometimes violent chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
(Pan troglodytes). Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace outlines the selection pressures favoring the female preference for social stability and the implications of the difference in male and female responses with respect to physical violence and war for contemporary cultures.
Effects of Settled Living
A survey by anthropologist Douglas Fry (The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence), determined that while nomadic hunter-gathers are generally egalitarian in nature and nonviolent (including non-warring), settled or "complex" hunter-gatherers tend to develop hierarchical social structure and female subjugation. Many such complex hunter-gatherers also make war. Hand expands on Fry to conclude that a key culprit in the evolution of warfare was settled living and the subsequent loss of power for women, who are the natural proponents of nonviolent conflict resolution. These characteristics of settled hunter-gatherers—the development of hierarchy, the subjugation of women, and the emergence of war—were greatly exacerbated, Hand argues, by wholesale settlement that accompanied the Agricultural RevolutionAgricultural revolution
Agricultural Revolution or Agrarian Revolution may refer to:*The Neolithic Revolution , the initial transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture in prehistory...
, and they continue to the present.
Although war has ancient biological roots, Hand argues that it is currently fostered primarily by our social environments—by our cultures. War can be abolished if humanity is willing to engage in major cultural transformation. On Her website, AFutureWithoutWar (AFWW), Hand explores nine “cornerstones of a plan of action to create a "warfare transition,” that is, a shift toward abolishing war that could be as swift as the demographic transition
Demographic transition
The demographic transition model is the transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system. The theory is based on an interpretation of demographic history developed in 1929 by the American...
of the mid-twentieth century.
"Hidden Females Syndrome"
In Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace Hand coins the term “hidden females syndrome” for the well-recognized tendency among scholars and lay people alike to overlook women when researcing or writing about the human condition with respect to war and other subjects. She argues that this blindness to female significance and dismissal of female input hinders any full understanding of why and how we engage in wars.Summary
To summarize Hand’s position: When women are excluded from decision-making or conflict-resolving situations (whether this is within the home, the community or at state levels), male proclivities for domination, up to and including domination by violence and threats of violence, are expressed unchecked and untempered by female proclivities for more nonviolent, win-win solutions. With respect to war, the results of unchecked male proclivities are demonstrated by the historical record of relentless warring. Hope for abolishing war must include reempowerment of women as full partners with men so that female preferences for nonviolence can be an equally powerful shaper of our group behavior, serving as a check on using physical violence and thereby serving as a positive influence for our future. She writes, lectures, and networks in efforts to mobilize leaders, academics, and lay people to begin a campaign to ultimately abolish war.Family
Judith Leon (née Latta) Hand was born in Cherokee, Oklahoma, the daughter of John Leon Latta & Wanda Hazel Latta (1914–1994). Her father, a successful restaurateur, died when she was nine; her mother, a registered nurse, raised Hand and her younger sister alone. Hand graduated from Torrance High SchoolTorrance High School
Torrance High School is a high school located in Torrance, California. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest high schools in continuous use in California and is the oldest of the four high schools in the Torrance Unified School District. Four of its buildings are listed on the U.S...
in Torrance, California
Torrance, California
Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...
, in 1957. In 1967, she married Los Angeles police detective, Harold M. Hand, and remained married to him until his death in 1996. They had no children.
Articles
- 1966. Winter, Ploog, and Hand. "Vocal repertoire of the Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus), its analysis and significance." Experimental Brain Research 1: 359-384.
- 1967. Hand, Hopf, and Ploog. "Observations on mating behavior and sexual play in the Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus)." Primates 8: 229-246.
- 1981. "Sociobiological implications of unusual sexual behaviors of gulls: the genotype/behavioral phenotype problem. Ethology and Sociobiology 2:135-145. 1981.
- 1985. "Egalitarian resolution of social conflicts: a study of pair-bonded gulls in nest duty and feeding contexts." Z. Tierpsychol. 70: 123-147.
- 1986. "Territory defense and associated vocalizations of Western Gulls." J. Field Ornithology 57:1-15.
- 1986. "Resolution of Social Conflicts: Dominance, Egalitarianism, Spheres of Dominance and Game Theory." Quart. Rev. Biol. 61:201-220.
- 1997. Pierotti, Annett, & Hand. "Male and Female Perceptions of Pair-bond Dynamics: Monogamy in the Western Gull, Larus occidentalis." pp. 261–175 in Feminism and Evolutionary Biology: Boundaries, Intersections, and Frontiers, Patricia Adair Gowaty, ed. NY: Chapman and Hall. ISBN 0-9436104-5-1.
- 2008. Hand, Judith L. (Review) Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace by Douglas P. Fry. Human Ethology Bulletin 23(2).
- 2010. Hand, Judith L. "To Abolish War." Journal of Aggression, Conflict, and Peace Research. 2 (4):44-56.
Nonfiction
- 1987 Hand, Southern, & Vermeer (eds.), Ecology and Behavior of Gulls; Studies in Avian Biology, No. 10. ISBN 0-9358683-1-3
- 2003 Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing. ISBN 0-9700031-6-1
- 2006 A Future Without War: The Strategy of a Warfare Transition. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9700031-3-3
Fiction
- 2001 Voice of the Goddess. Cardiff, CA: Pacific Rim Press. ISBN 0-970-00313-7
- 2002 Die Gőttin des wűtenden Berges.
- 2004 The Amazon and the Warrior. NY: Tor/Forge. ISBN 0-765-34936-1
- 2004 Code Name: Dove. NY: Silhouette Books. ISBN 0-373-51318-6
- 2005 Iron Dove. NY: Silhouette Books. ISBN 0-373-51379-8
- 2006 Captive Dove. NY: Silhouette Books. ISBN 10 0-373-51425-5
- 2007 The Good Thief. NY: Silhouette Books. ISBN 978-0-373-38973-5
Academic
- 1966 Student Research Grant, Chapman Fund, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
- 1968 Outstanding Student Paper Award, Annual Meeting, American Ornithologists Union.
- 1969 Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- 1984 Elected Member – American Ornithologists Union
Selected Fiction Awards
- 1999 Winner, NE Indiana Romance Authors, "Opening Gambit," Historical, "Voice of the Goddess."
- 1999 Winner, Sooner Area Romance Authors, "Shooting Star Award," "Historical, Voice of the Goddess."
- 1999 Winner, San Diego Book Awards, Unpublished Novelists, "Voice of the Goddess."
- 2005 Winner, San Diego Book Awards, Best Historical Novel, "The Amazon and the Warrior."
Miscellaneous
- 1982. Chair of the Pacific Seabird Group. During Hand’s tenure, the organization gained non-profit status and established an endowment fund.
- 1984. Co-convener of a symposium on the Impact of the 1982-83 El Niño on Seabird Ecology. AAAS Western Division, San Francisco, CA.
- 1987. Article by William Jordan: "Divorce, Sea-gull Style. Sometimes Two Birds Just Can’t See Eye to Eye Over Brooding Privileges." Los Angeles Times Magazine, February 22. Features Dr. Hand’s studies on conflict resolution by mated breeding gull pairs.
- 1994. Co-convener of a workshop on Women in Ornithology. Combined meeting of the American Ornithologist’s Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, and Wilson Ornithological Society. Missoula, MT.
Quotes
"Because of genetic inclinations that are as deeply rooted as the bonding-for-aggression inclinations of men, most women would prefer to make or keep the peace, the sooner the better." In Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, p. 45."If women around the world in the twenty-first century would get their act together they could, partnered with men of like mind, shift the direction of world history to create a future without war." In A Future Without War: the Strategy of a Warfare Transition, p. 53.
External links
- Judith Hand’s Personal Website
- A Future Without War website
- Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace (download)
- Imagine All the People. Essay: Barry Seidman
- William A. Sprigs – Book Review of Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace
- Radio Interview of Dr. Judith Hand on the Doug Noll Show (30 Apr 2009).
- Romantic Times – Book Review of Voice of the Goddess
- Judith Hand at SheSource.
- Up The River Endeavors.