War, like poetry, is meant to woe women

Cherchez la femme, so to speak...

 

Women and property are the cause of male aggression

 

The hunger for women, along with property, are blamed for the evolution of belligerence and bravery by a study of the mathematics of warfare.

 

Today's research chimes with the findings of earlier genetic studies that revealed an estimated 16 million men today, plus an uncounted number of women, are the direct descendants of Genghis Khan, the 13th century Mongolian warlord who carved out a vast empire.

Other work has shown Viking genetic signature from the frontiers of their empire, such as the Scottish Western Isles, the Isle of Skye and Iceland, which fits the popular image of male invaders who took local wives. And studies of chimpanzees suggest that the urge to go to war is lies in our genes.

Now a Californian team has studied the evolutionary forces that shaped the need for males to be belligerent, which raises their probability of trying to conquer neighbours, and of bravery, which increases the probability of succeeding in conquest.

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