Resource competition and violent conflict
Cross-cultural evidence for a socio-ecological approach
Rafael Wittek
Lehrstuhl für Soziologie und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Findelgasse 9, D—8500
Nürnberg 1, Deutschland
Abstract. The present paper provides a statistical test of alternative theories related to the resource scarcity
hypothesis in anthropological conflict research. Existing demographical, ecological, and evolutionary
theories are criticized for conceptualizing scarcity as an one-dimensional phenomenon. An alternative “so-
clo-ecological” model is developed, in which the distribution of scarce goods plays a key role. The power of
the discussed models in explaining ten different forms of violent conflict management is examined by apply-
Ing a hierarchical logit-analysis. The results provide strong support for the socio-ecological approach.
Introduction
The idea that scarce resources may be one factor leading to warfare or other forms of
Violent conflict has been discussed for a long time in the social and political sciences
alike. In cultural anthropology, this topic has attracted special attention with the rise
Of the cultural-ecological paradigm in the 50's and 60's (Ferguson 1984). A great many
of scholars began to focus on this relationship, and the majority of their rather detailed
Case studies provide strong support for this argument.! Since then, some cross-cultural
Work has followed, where these assumptions have been tested on a regional or world-
Wide scale. Most of these studies arrived at a confirmation of the hypothesis, thus im-
Plying that the connection between warfare and such phenomena as rising population
densities or food stress can be accepted even as a statistical law.
. Up to now, however, no attempt has been made to assess the theoretical compati-
bility of the different approaches. Furthermore, the existing hypotheses have never
een tested simultanously using the same sample. This will be done in the present
Paper? I will start with a short review of existing cross-cultural studies dealing with re-
Source scarcity as a cause of violent conflict. In trying to overcome some theoretical
Weaknesses of previous attempts, a new theoretical perspective is developed in the sec-
Ond section. It will be statistically tested against the previous explanations thereafter,
using a hierarchical logit-analysis.
SS ES
1
3 For an exhaustive bibliography on these studies see Ferguson and Farragher (1988).
= r climinary versions have been presented atthe DFG-Conference “Theory construction and comparative
Ee on violent conflict in Third World Countries: Nomothetic explanations versus ideographic des-
Ptions” (Bonn, November 1989) and the annual meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research (Cla-
lemont, March 1990).
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 115 (1990) 23-44
© 1992 Dietrich Reimer Verlag