Douglas P. Fry, PhD

Posted on September 09, 2024

PCS Professor Douglas P. Fry

Emeritus Professor

Department of Peace and Conflict Studies

[email protected]

Bio & Education

Douglas P. Fry is Professor and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Fry earned his doctorate in anthropology from Indiana University in 1986. He has written extensively on aggression, conflict resolution, and war and peace. He is currently researching how clusters of neighboring societies, peace systems, manage to live without war. His most recent book, Nurturing Our Humanity, is co-authored with Riane Eisler (2019, Oxford). Eisler and Fry argue that the path to human survival and well-being in the 21st century hinges on our human capacities to cooperate and promote social equality, including gender equality.

He also is author of Beyond War (2007, Oxford), The Human Potential for Peace (2006, Oxford) and co-editor of Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies Around the World (2004, Routledge) and Cultural Variation in Conflict Resolution: Alternatives to Violence (1997, Erlbaum). Fry is the recipient of the 2015 Peace Scholar-Educator Award, of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. He regularly gives interviews about his work, such as “Is Human Nature Peaceful?” on the Raising Primates Podcast in 2019.

Courses Taught

  • PCS 430: The Power of Nonviolence in Social Change
  • PCS 601: Indigenous Peace Practices
  • PCS 607: Conflict Analysis: Theory of Change
  • PCS 630: The Power of Nonviolence in Social Change

Research

  • The Human Potential for Peacebuidling
  • Human Nature, War, and Peace
  • Peace Systems
  • Peace Anthropology
  • The Evolution of Restraint During Aggression
  • Nonviolence and Prosociality

Current projects

Peace Systems

Peace systems can be defined as clusters of neighboring societies that do not make war on each other. Peace systems hold lessons for how to create and maintain peace. Such systems have been described ethnographically and historically (Fry 2009, 2012, 2013; Fry, Bonta, & Baszarkiewicz 2008 — see the “Selected Publications” category, below, for references).

The Peace Systems project is briefly explained in the two-minute video “Learning from Peace Systems” produced by Peter Coleman and the Sustainable Peace Project of AC4 at Columbia University.

Key questions in peace system research include: How do peace systems arise? How are they maintained? What are the implications of knowledge about peace systems for creating peace in other contexts? Can humanity develop a Global Peace System?

The next stage in the research will include using a coding protocol to assess quantitatively how peace system societies compare with non-peace system societies. Variables of interest pertain to how peace is sustained, or not, in two samples and include assessments among neighboring societies of overarching social identity; interconnections such as trade or intermarriage; ecological, economic, and/or security interdependence; core values supportive of peace or war; degrees of peace leadership; rituals, symbols, and ceremonies that may either link or divide neighboring societies; and so on.

This project is briefly explained in a two minute video produced by Peter Coleman and the Sustainable Peace Project of AC4 at Columbia University:

books

  • Eisler, Riane & Douglas P. Fr (2019)., Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Minds, Lives, and Future. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Fry, Douglas P. (Ed.) (2013). War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Kurtz, Lester (Editor-in-Chief), A. McAlister, A. Petit, A. Coker, B. Chasin, D. Ritter, D. Fry, J. Oberg, J. Backwell, L. Lorentzen, M. Okamoto, & R. Elias (Associate Eds.) (2008). Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Volumes 1-3, second edition. New York: Elsevier/Academic Press.
  • Fry, Douglas P. (2007). Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Fry, Douglas P (2006).. The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Kemp, Graham & Douglas P. Fry (Eds.) (2004). Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies around the World. New York: Routledge.
  • Fry, Douglas P. & Kaj Björkqvist (Eds.) (1997). Cultural Variation in Conflict Resolution: Alternatives to Violence. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Press.

selected publications

  • In Press. Fry, Douglas P. & Souillac Geneviève. Prehistoric Warfare. In Kaushik Roy (Ed.) Oxford Bibliographies in Military History. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. xxx-xxx.
  • 2022 [Film] Fry, Douglas P. & Souillac, , Geneviève. A Path Away from War: The Science of Peace Systems. Writers and Producers, in cooperation with Sustainable Human.
  • 2022. Fry, Douglas P. & Souillac, Geneviève. Indigenous Approaches to Peacemaking. In Roger Mac Ginty and Anthony Wanis-St. John (Eds.) Contemporary Peacemaking: Peace Processes, Peacebuilding and Conflict (3rd Edition). London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 121-140.
  • 2022. Fry, Douglas P. Foreword to Politics and Racism Beyond Nations: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Crises, by J. P. Linstroth. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. vii-xiv.
  • 2022. Fry, Douglas P. Peaceful Societies. In Lester Kurtz et al. (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict (3rd Edition). Academic Press, Volume 4, pp. 113-124.
  • 2022. de Groot, M., Schaafsma, J., Castelain, T., Malinowska, K., Mann, L., Ohtsubo, Y., Wulandari, M.T.A., Bataineh, R.F., Fry, D.P., Goudbeek, M., & Suryani, A. Group-Based Shame, Guilt, and Regret across Cultures. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1-15.
  • 2021. Fry, Douglas P. and Souillac, Geneviève. Peaceful societies are not utopian fantasy. They exist. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (March 22). Open Access:https://thebulletin.org/2021/03/peaceful-societies-are-not-utopian fantasy-they-exist/
  • 2021. Fry, Douglas P., Souillac, Geneviève, Liebovitch, L., Coleman, P. T., Agan, K., Nicholson-Cox, E., Mason, D., Palma Gomez, F., and Strauss, S. Societies within Peace Systems Avoid War and Build Positive Intergroup Relationships. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Online, Open Access, January 18. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00692-8.
  • 2020 Fry, Douglas P., Keith, Charles, & Söderberg, Patrik. Social Complexity, Inequality, and War before Farming: Congruence of Comparative Forager and Archaeological Data. In Luc Moreau (Ed.) Social Inequality before Farming? Multidisciplinary approaches to the investigation of egalitarian and non-egalitarian social relationships in prehistoric and extant hunter-gatherer societies, 303-320 (chapter 18). University of Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.The entire book is available online here (click “view/open files” link at the following link): https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/313518
  • 2020. Fry, Douglas P. & Souillac, Geneviève. Human Nature, Peace, and War in the Modern Era since 1920. In Ronald Edsforth (Ed.) A Cultural History of Peace in the Modern Age (1920 – Present), pp. 41-60. London: Bloomsbury.
  • 2019. Fry, Douglas P. Invited CA Commentary on “Collective Action for War and Peace: A Case Study among the Enga of Papua New Guinea.” Current Anthropology 60:237-238.
  • 2019. Fry, Douglas P. The Much Overlooked Foundational Principle of Restraint. Peace Review 31:46-54.
  • 2018. Fry, Douglas P. The Evolutionary Logic of Human Peaceful Behavior. In Peter Verbeek and Benjamin A. Peters (Eds.) Peace Ethology: Behavioral Processes and Systems of Peace, pp. 249-265. New York: Wiley and Sons.
  • 2018. Fry, Douglas P. Human Aggression from a Cross-Cultural Perspective. In Jane L. Ireland, Philip Birch, & Carol A. Ireland (Eds.) The Routledge International Handbook on Aggression, 83-93. New York: Routledge.
  • 2017. Fry, Douglas P., Cross-Cultural Differences in Aggression. In Peter Sturmey (Ed.) The Wiley Handbook of Violence and Aggression, pp. 1- 12. New York: Wiley (published online and in print).
  • 2017. Anwar, Farida, Fry, Douglas P., & Grigaityte, Ingrida. Aggression Prevention and Reduction in Diverse Cultures and Contexts. Current Opinions in Psychology (April 5).
  • 2017. Söderberg, Patrik & Fry, Douglas P., Anthropological Aspects of Ostracism. In Kipling D. Williams & and Steve A. Nida (Eds.) Ostracism, Exclusion, and Rejection, pp. 258-272. New York: Routledge.
  • 2017. Fry, Douglas P., and Geneviève Souillac. The Original Partnership Societies: Evolved Propensities for Equality, Prosociality, and Peace. Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 4 (1), article 4.
  • 2016. Souillac, Geneviève & Fry, Douglas P., Anthropology: Implications for Peace. In Oliver P. Richmond, Sandra Pogodda, and Jasmine Ramovic (Eds.) The Palgrave Handbook on Disciplinary and Regional Approaches to Peace, pp. 69-81. New York: Palgrave Mcmillan.
  • 2016. Douglas P. Fry & Souillac, Geneviève. Peace by Other Means: Reflections from the Indigenous World. Common Knowledge, 22: 8-24.
  • 2015. Souillac, Geneviève & Fry, Douglas P. The Philosophical Anthropology of Interculturality: A Vehicle for Creating Inclusive Identities and Positive Peace. Thémata: Revista de Filosofía 52: 31-39.2015. Fry, Douglas P., Book Review: Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers, edited by Mark W. Allen and Terry L. Jones. American Anthropologist 117: 814-815.
  • 2015. Souillac, Geneviève & Fry, Douglas P., The Human Quest for Peace, Rights, and Justice: Convergence of the Traditional and the Modern. In Johanna Seibt & Jesper Garsdal (Eds.) How is Global Dialogue Possible? Foundational Research on Values, Conflicts, and Intercultural Thought, pp. 225-249. Berlin: DeGruyter.
  • 2014. Fry, Douglas P. & Söderberg, Patrik, Myths about Hunter-Gatherers Redux: Nomadic Forager War and Peace. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research 6 (4): 255-266.
  • 2014. Fry, Douglas P., Group Identity as an Obstacle and Catalyst of Peace. In Leckman, James F., Panter-Brick, C., & Salah, R., (Eds.) Formative Childhoods: A Path to Peace? The Transformative Power of Children and Families, pp. 79-92. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • 2014. Souillac, Geneviève & Fry, Douglas P., Indigenous Lessons for Conflict Resolution. In Peter Coleman, Morton Deutsch, & Eric Marcus (Eds.) The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice (Third Edition), pp. 602-622. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • 2014. Fry, Douglas P. The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness, Rough-and-Tumble Play, and the Selection of Restraint in Human Aggression. In D. Narvaez, K. Valentino, A. Fuentes, J. McKenna, & P. Gray (Eds.) Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing, pp. 167-186. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. book Review: Dangerous Tribes: Review of Napoleon A. Chagnon’s Noble Savages. My Life among Two Dangerous Tribes – The Yanomamö and the Anthropologists. European Journal of Sociology, 54:531-536.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. & Souillac, Geneviève. The Relevance of Nomadic Forager Studies to Moral Foundations Theory: Moral Education and Global Ethics in the Twenty-First Century. Journal of Moral Education, 42: 346-359.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. & Söderberg, Patrik. Lethal Aggression in Mobile Forager Bands and the Implications for the Origins of War. Science, 341: 270-273.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. The Evolution of Cooperation: What’s War Got to Do With It? Reviews in Anthropology, 42: 102-121.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Challenge of Achieving Scientific Objectivity. In Douglas P. Fry (Ed.) War, Peace, and Human Nature: Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views, pp. 1-21. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. & Szala, Anna. The Evolution of Agonism: The Triumph of Restraint in Nonhuman and Human Primates. In Douglas P. Fry (Ed.) War, Peace, and Human Nature: Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views, pp. 451-474. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 2013. Fry, Douglas P. Cooperation for Survival: Creating a Global Peace System. In Douglas P. Fry (Ed.) War, Peace, and Human Nature: Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views, pp. 543-558. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 2012 Fry, Douglas P. Life without War. Science, 336:879-884.
  • 2012 Fry, Douglas P. Abolition of War: An Agenda for Survival. In Krzysztof Wodiczko (Ed.) The Abolition of War, pp. 116-137. London: Black Dog Press.
  • 2012 Fry, Douglas P. & Miklikowska, Marta. Culture of Peace. In Morton Deutsch & Peter Coleman (Eds.) Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace, 227-243. New York: Springer.
  • 2012. Fry, Douglas P. Anthropological Examples of Peacemaking: Practice and Theory. In Susan Allen Nan, Zachariah Mampily, & Andrea Bartoli (Eds.) Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory, Volume II, pp. 550-562. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International.
  • 2012. Miklikowska, Marta & Fry, Douglas P. Natural Born Nonkillers: A Critique of the Killers-Have-More-Kids Idea. In Daniel J. Christie & Joám Evans Pim (Eds.) Nonkilling Psychology, pp. 43-70. Honolulu: Center for Global Nonkilling.
  • 2010 Fry, Douglas P., Gary Schober, & Kaj Björkqvist. Evolutionary Restraints on Lethal Aggression in Animals and Humans. In Joám Evans Pim (Ed.) Nonkilling Societies, pp. 101-128. Honolulu: Center for Global Nonkilling.
  • 2009 Fry, Douglas P. Anthropological Insights for Creating Nonwarring Social Systems. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research 1:4-15.
  • 2008 Fry, Douglas P., Bruce Bonta, & Karolina Baszarkiewicz. Learning from Extant Cultures of Peace. In Joseph de Rivera (Ed.): Handbook on Building Cultures of Peace, pp. 11-26. New York: Springer.
  • 2006 Bonta, Bruce & Douglas P. Fry, Lessons for the Rest of Us: Learning from Peaceful Societies. In Mari Fitzduff & Chris E. Stout (Eds.): The Psychology of Resolving Global Conflicts: From War to Peace, Volume 1: Nature vs. Nurture. pp. 175-210. Westport, CN: Praeger.
  • 2000 Fry, Douglas P. Conflict Management in Cross-Cultural Perspective. In Filippo Aureli & Frans de Waal (Eds.): Natural Conflict Resolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 334-351.
  • 1997 Fry, Douglas P. & C. Brooks Fry. Culture and Conflict Resolution Models: Exploring Alternatives to Violence. In Fry, Douglas P. and Kaj Björkqvist (Eds.): Cultural Variation in Conflict Resolution: Alternatives to Violence, pp. 9-36. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Press.
  • 1997 Wiesel, Elie & Douglas P. Fry. On Respecting Others and Preventing Hate: A Conversation with Elie Wiesel. In Fry, Douglas P. and Kaj Björkqvist (Eds.): Cultural Variation in Conflict Resolution: Alternatives to Violence, 243-254. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Press.
  • 1994 Fry, Douglas P. & Ayala Gabriel. Preface: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Aggression. Sex Roles 30:165-167.
  • 1992 Fry, Douglas P. “Respect for the Rights of Others is Peace”: Learning Aggression Versus Non-Aggression among the Zapotec. American Anthropologist 94:621-639.

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