Modern Cavemen – Prehistoric Violence. Lets get physical.

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So, I’ve come to the end of my own journey searching for a reason why one of my parents raised me with frequent beatings with whatever was to hand.
I am fairly enlightened as to the psychology and social aspects having studied these in a small way through college, but what started out as a personal journey has become far more. I KNEW there was more to violence in humans than being raised in a detrimental environment. I KNEW there was something physical involved, something we are born with. How did I know? Because when you look about you people everywhere contradict the ‘norm’ for sociological outcomes and psychological traits. So, I wanted to take that road, the PHYSICAL reasons for violence, and especially violence with weapons (And by weapons, I mean straps, sticks, baseball bats, boots – anything other than the hand/fist – not just guns which we all think of in the first instance.).

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For a start, I have had many fellow Steemians read, comment and converse about the various posts I put out there. The feedback was appreciated, and I and others were spurred to research different angles that may or may not have connected. It was soon becoming a fun science project.
My ‘personal research’ became public and many people have shown me that they have been through similar journeys, many have travelled harder roads than I and many were simply fascinated and enlighten. Isn’t that what this is all about? I feel a huge sense of achievement in just that.

So how to bring this to an end that isn’t an end?

Well, to start with I will recap in short all of the things I have learned.
I started with the Fight or Flight response
We have all heard of this but most of us are simply aware that it’s something to do with adrenaline. It’s a lot more than that as the post starts to reveal. It is however, the basis for the rest of my journey. For me it was the adrenaline aspect that made me look deeper. Does someone who is beating the crap out of another get an adrenaline rush? Well YEAH! But what is that doing? Why does it happen? If fight or flight is adrenaline pushed, then why, when there’s no need/no danger, do people still react as if they’re in danger?
Chemicals and cavemen.
We’re programmed chemically to respond to a threat or a perceived threat – which includes the emotion of anger.
So that started me towards finding an answer to a physical reason for hurting another human. I looked into the actual ACT OF HITTING (or punching) and found this amazing information
Once I found out that fist-making is uniquely human I went on a slight tangent to look at the genetics of violence.
I started looking at whether we inherit the tendency, whether we’re all born with it, but some suppress it better than others, OR whether it is simply imprinted through generations – father to son kind of thing. This research led me to find that the world of science, I.E. PROPER scientists, are also following this lead. It’s a massive area of study but here’s my bit to get you started about genetic aggression.

Studying the genetics and comments from readers made me think – if violence is (or can be) genetic how do we know? How can we say that without taking on board each individual’s personal psychological and social well-being? Well obviously, scientists test and document along the way but no two humans react in the same way to exactly the same stimuli … even twins who experience life the same react differently. So, I went back to basics – BABIES. Well, babies and toddlers. There’s research showing here that even without any acts of violence or anything detrimental ever happening in their young lives a baby or toddler can be capable of violent acts way beyond any other mammal offspring – and we’re back to cave dwelling days. Read that here
There’s also a great read encompassing the psychology of tantrums here written by @abigail-dantes - a must for any child carer, parent, grandparent or parent to be – even if you just appreciate what you don’t have to deal with.

So, up to this point I found out that the Fight or Flight response can encourage unnecessary and innate violence in humans. I found that it’s a relic response from when we were just stepping out of the jungle and becoming more ‘man’ than ape, and it’s also something that we pass down the line to our children and our children’s children. Evolution is being particularly slow in letting go.

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Ok, so moving on – The Weapon. The woman leathering a child with a strap – the man beating the youth with a bat (or club in the good old caveman days) – the young man shooting his rival in a fight. What’s THAT all about? Why not use fists?
Well, apart from using a weapon gives the offender a degree of distance, thus security to get a head start to run should things turn bad, was there more? Did this too have a physical reason for happening?

In my last post I uncovered an interesting scenario. The post was kind of written with any weapon in mind, but in today’s current climate the word GUN seems to equate to WEAPON more than anything else. I found that once again that old Fight and Flight issue raised its head. The hormones, the chemicals – but something new appeared.

TREATS
Yes! It appears our brains like to have treats, rewards for doing what it thinks we want it to do. That means that if we feel happy, excited, a rush from exercise, running in fear, fighting, sex, HURTING PEOPLE - it all stems from the same neural signals and hormonal/chemical reaction.That information is here
Dopamine comes to the fore and so treats the brain when it reacts in accordance with the adrenaline response.

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BUT
… as is always good, there appears to now be a counter argument to that. In fact, most of my posts were researched with one angle in mind and counter points were well put by readers or found during research. I would love to follow every angle and aspect, but I’d be a scientist then, and I’m just a mum. (Well not JUST! a mum but you get what I mean).
So, it’s now the end for me writing on this subject but I intend to read and learn more as time goes by.
Also, you will note that this post is a recap, no new information. That’s not being lazy (well it is kind of) but that I want to encourage you all to look more closely, do your own reading and discuss and write posts for the rest of us to read, enjoy and share.

You have read this post because the subject was of interest to you. One day some of you will no doubt bring about some kind of change in society, if only to teach your young ones that violence is not acceptable nowadays but that there are more reasons as to why we feel the need than simply being in the ‘wrong’ place or brought up the ‘wrong’ way. Teaching young people that a natural angry or violent reaction can be controlled is no different to teaching them to follow rules and guidelines in any other area of life. We teach young ones to do this when their 'instinct' differs to their learned experiences. We teach them to ask when they want to take, we teach them to share when they want to hoard – these teachings go against their natural survival instinct of looking after oneself before the group. We CAN teach them that they do not have to react to all of the inner urges without restricting their ability to blossom and grow. Teach them how to choose and hopefully they will make good choices.

We are HUMAN, we can destroy – but we can also make it a better place to be.
Thank you all for your participation in this journey and I’ll meet you on my next one.

And a special Thank You to @mobbs @abigail-dantes @sakura1012 @ruth-girl @utopian-io and so many more for encouraging me to write and search and learn and share.

Look up @steemstem for science facts not fiction.