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UnDisciplined: Clenched fists and full beards: two pieces of evidence suggesting humans evolved to fight

Nile (Kiki Layne) and Andy (Charlize Theron) fight in <em>The Old Guard</em>. Gina Prince-Bythewood says her experiences as a kickboxer helped her choreograph the movie's fight scenes: "I know what good fighting looks like."
Aimee Spinks
/
Netflix
Nile (Kiki Layne) and Andy (Charlize Theron) fight in The Old Guard. Gina Prince-Bythewood says her experiences as a kickboxer helped her choreograph the movie's fight scenes: "I know what good fighting looks like."

Humans have not evolved to do any one thing. We evolved to make tools. We evolved to tell stories. We evolved to explore and more. And one thing that some scientists are now coming to recognize is that we also evolved to fight — with each other.

David Carrier is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah, and the author or co-author of scores of studies suggesting humans' physiological characteristics were driven by running after other animals and fighting with each other.

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Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling <i>Lifespan</i> with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning <i>Longevity Plan</i> with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, <i>Superlative</i>, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.<br/>