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Judith L. Hand Ph.D. (born 2 February 1940), an American evolutionary biologist, animal behaviorist, and social activist, is a pioneer in the field of peace ethology.

She has written and lectured extensively on gender differences in conflict resolution, the biological roots of war, the empowerment of women, and the abolition of war.

Hand received her Ph.D. in Animal Behavior (subfields: Ornithology and Primatology) from UCLA in 1979. Her doctoral dissertation compared the vocalizations of two populations of gulls. The results were used in the reclassification of the gull population found in the Gulf of California as a separate species. [1981] Hand published papers on egalitarian behavior in conflict resolution while working at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., as a Smithsonian Post-doctoral Fellow (1979-1980).

A 1986 paper introduced the concepts of "leverage" and "spheres of dominance" and explains why the relative payoffs determine which individual will be dominant in a given context. On her website "A Future Without War" and in her books and lectures, Hand explores nine cornerstones of a plan to create a shift toward abolishing war. She argues that the female preference for social stability is a critical element in keeping war in check.

Peace Ethology

Ethology is the study of Animal Behavior. Human Ethology is the study of humans, using the same methods and techniques used to study other animals. Peace Ethology is a developing subfield of Ethology. ???

Hand discusses the implications of gender differences in animals and humans, for contemporary cultures, especially with respect to physical violence and war. She suggests that the relatively non-violent bonobo (Pan paniscus), is a better model for students of human evolution than the highly aggressive and sometimes violent chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). She argues that blindness to female significance and dismissal of female input hinders any full understanding of why and how we engage in wars.

Hand suggests that during the long,nomadic hunter-gatherer phases of our evolution, females developed a strong preference for social stability. This preference tends to suppress anything that risks the death of women or their offspring, including social turmoil within their group and male inclinations to make war. In most nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures, which are typically egalitarian cultures, women have strong influences in deciding group behavior.

Hand argues that this female preference for social stability is a critical element in keeping war in check. Hand outlines the selection pressures favoring the female preference for social stability. This evolved female preference for social stability is expressed in a strong female proclivity for negotiation, compromise, “keeping the peace,” and mediation—as opposed to killing—to resolve differences. This preference is also reflected in a greater female tendency towardprospicience—a forward-looking attitude that fosters anticipating and heading off potential conflicts.

A Future Without War

Hand’s book Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace draws from diverse fields including evolutionary biology, primatology, behavior, ornithology, cultural anthropology, neurophysiology, and history. Hand has expanded concepts from this book into essays available on her website, A Future Without War, along with relevant links, book reviews and other materials. She continues writing, lecturing, and networking in efforts to mobilize leaders, academics, and lay people to begin a campaign to ultimately abolish war.

Biography and Work History

Born in Cherokee, Oklahoma, her given name is Judith Leon Latta. Her father, a successful restaurateur, died when she was nine; her mother, a registered nurse, was thus left to raise Hand and her younger sister alone. Hand graduated from Torrance High School in Torrance , California , in 1957. She earned a B.S. degree from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, in 1961, graduating summa cum laude, having majored in cultural anthropology before switching to zoology. In 1963, she earned an M.A. degree in general physiology at UCLA, after which she briefly worked as a laboratory technician at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. In 1963-1964, Hand was a research technician at the Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychiatry in Munich , Germany , where she assisted in brain surgeries designed to evoke vocalizations in squirrel monkey; she published her her first scientific papers on these behavioral experiments. From 1965 through 1966, at the Pediatrics Department of the UCLA Medical School , She was head head technician in a physiological laboratory studying bilirubin metabolism.

In 1967 she married Los Angeles police detective, Harold M. Hand, and remained married to him until his death in 1996. They had no children.

From 1967 to 1975, Hand taught high school biology at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica , CA . While still teaching, she began a Ph.D. program at UCLA and in 1979 was awarded a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior (subfields: Ornithology and Primatology). Her doctoral dissertation compared the structure and function of vocalizations of two populations of gulls (Larus occidentalis), and the results were used in the reclassification of the gull population found in the Gulf of California as a separate species, (Larus livens), and not just a subspecies of Larus occidentalis. After completing her doctorate, she continued behavioral research as a Smithsonian Post-doctoral Fellow at the National Zoo in Washington , D.C. (1979-1980). This research resulted in published papers on conflict resolution highlighting the use of egalitarian behavior to resolve conflicts. For example, mated gulls used such methods as sharing, first-come-first-served, and negotiation)rather than the commonly studied dominance and subordination behavior. Her theoretical paper in the Quarterly Review of Biology (Vol. 61, 1986) used a game theory approach to introduce the concept of “leverage” to explain why smaller individuals are sometimes able to establish an egalitarian relationship with much larger individuals, ones that could easily dominate them physically. This paper also introduced the concept of “spheres of dominance” to explain why, in a given relationship between two individuals, the relative payoffs to survival or reproduction depends on the context of a conflict. Different contexts will and consequently determine which individual of the pair will be dominant in a given context, instead of one individual being dominant over the other in all contexts. From 1980 to 1985, she was a Research Associate and Lecturer in the UCLA biology department teaching Animal Behavior and Ornithology.

After moving from Los Angeles to San Diego in 1987, Hand turned her attention to writing. In 2001, she self-published the novel, Voice of the Goddess. In 2004, two of her novels were published by New York publishing houses, the first, an historical epic set against the background of the Trojan war and the second, a contemporary women’s action adventure. More published novels soon followed; all featuring strong heroines. She has adapted several of her novels into screenplays.

In 2003, Hand self-published Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. This work examines gender differences in humans with respect to the use of physical aggression to resolve conflicts, focusing in particular on the biology of war. The books draws from fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, primatology, behavior, ornithology, cultural anthropology, neurophysiology, and history. Hand has expanded concepts from Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace into essays available on her website site, A Future Without War, along with book reviews, links, and other topical materials. She continues her writing, lecturing, and networking in efforts to mobilize leaders, academics, and lay people to begin a campaign to ultimately abolish war.

The most common cultural adaptation of human populations during the long and early phases of our evolution was that of nomadic hunter-gatherers. In Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, Hand argues that a critical element in keeping war in check among these nomadic hunter-gatherer groups was a strong female preference for social stability. This evolved female preference for social stability is expressed in a strong female proclivity for negotiation, compromise, “keeping the peace,” and mediation—as opposed to killing—to resolve differences. This preference is also reflected in a greater female tendency toward prospicience—a forward looking attitude which fosters anticipating and heading off potential conflicts. In most nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures, which are typically egalitarian cultures, women have strong influences in deciding group behavior. Hand suggests that the female preference for social stability tends to suppress both male inclinations to make war and any other social turmoil within their group that risk the death of women or their offspring. She suggests, based on behavior and physical traits of the relatively non-violent bonobo (Pan paniscus), such as hidden-ovulation, forward placed clitoris, and continuous receptivity, that they are a better model for students of human evolution than the highly aggressive and sometimes violent chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace outlines the selection pressures favoring the female preference for social stability and the implications of the difference in male and female responses with respect to physical violence and war for contemporary cultures.

A survey by anthropologist Douglas Fry (The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence. NY: Oxford University Press, 2006), determined that while nomadic hunter-gathers are generally egalitarian in nature and nonviolent (including non-warring), settled hunter-gatherers tend to develop hierarchical social structure and female subjugation. Many such settled hunter-gatherers also make war. Hand expands on Fry to conclude that a key culprit in the evolution of warfare was settled living and the subsequent loss of power for women, who are the natural proponents of nonviolent conflict resolution. These characteristics of settled hunter-gatherers, including the development of hierarchy, the subjugation of women, and war, were greatly exacerbated by the wholesale settlement that accompanied the Agricultural Revolution, and they continue to the present.

Hand coined the term “hidden females syndrome” for the well-recognized tendency among scholars and lay people alike to overlook women when studying or writing about the human condition with respect to war and other subjects. She argues in Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace that this blindness to female significance and dismissal of female input hinders any full understanding of why and how we engage in wars.

2004 The Amazon and the Warrior. NY: Tor/Forge. 2004 Code Name: Dove. NY: Silhouette Books. 2005 Iron Dove. NY: Silhouette Books. 2006 Captive Dove. NY: Silhouette Books. 2007 The Good Thief. NY: Silhouette Books. 1999 Winner, NE Indiana Romance Authors, "Opening Gambit," Historical, Voice of the Goddess. 1999 Winner, Sooner Area Romance Authors, "Shooting Star Award," Historical, Voice of the Goddess. 1999 Winner, San Diego Book Awards, Unpublished Novelists, Voice of the Goddess. 2005 Winner, San Diego Book Awards, Best Historical Novel, The Amazon and the Warrior.

Quotes

“Because of genetic inclinations that are as deeply rooted as the bonding-for-aggression inclinations of men, most women would prefer to make or keep the peace, the sooner the better.” In Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace, p.45.

“If women around the world in the twenty-first century would get their act together they could, partnered with men of like mind, shift the direction of world history to create a future without war.” In A Future Without War: the Strategy of a Warfare Transition, p.53.