Societal Restrictiveness and the Presence of Outlets for the Release of Aggression

Abstract

It was predicted that societies that were restrictive in not allowing the individual to express hostility would be more likely than nonrestrictive societies to supply formal sanctioned outlets for aggression. Restrictive societies were classified as those having unilineal kin groups and where sorcery is not practiced. These societies tend to practice superordinate justice and are controlling of members' behaviors. Societies where unilineal groups are absent and sorcery is present tend to have coordinate judicial systems and are relatively nonrestrictive. Measures of warfare and games of physical skill were utilized as sanctioned outlets for aggression. The results supported the hypothesis, as restrictive societies were more likely than nonrestrictive ones to have common warfare and games of physical skill.