Keith F. Otterbein's scholarship has followed an overall design since 1962, when he began conducting comparative studies of warfare using both ethnographic and cross-cultural methods. Through a conceptual framework derived from systems theory, he has made signal contributions to our understanding of the role of warfare in human social evolution. He has formulated a Fraternal Interest Group theory, utilizing it to explain not only feuding and warfare but also rape and capital punishment.

Believing that armed combat is learned behavior, he has posed questions about its learning process that have yet to be answered. He has acted as a major synthesizer of the growing literature on warfare and has led attempts among anthropologists to apply their knowledge of war and peace to current events. This volume will serve both as a useful introduction to the anthropology of war and as a needed compendium of Professor Otterbein's ideas.