Please join the Department of Anthropology for the final Spring 2026 proseminar speaker series:

Title: War, Politics, and Biology: A ‘Big Historians’ View of Past Phenomena

Speaker: Brian Villmoare, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology UNLV

Abstract: Major historical phenomena have traditionally been described in historical frameworks, with the important causal factors described as contingent upon individuals acting in particular contexts. Modern science, however, attempts to present causality in the framework of a ‘covering model’ (sensu Hempel), under which other such events would fall. Historians, therefore, tend to focus on the specific while the scientist attempts to explain at the general level. Some historians, especially postmodernists, have expressed skepticism that science can ever be used to explain human behavior. Big History sits at this juncture of history and science, albeit uneasily.

In this lecture I examine the contrasting ways of explaining the past and use organized human conflict as a test of the model. Applying a framework from evolutionary biology, I explore patterns in organized conflict across time and space and examine what we can and cannot know from a study of human behavior in a scientific framework. Given the scientific perspective, I address ways that this information might be used in future decision-making.