Emotional complexity, moral conflict and the motivations for dispersal events From after 100,000 years ago, modern humans moved out of Africa spreading faster than had any other human species, across deserts, mountain ranges and seas, to the furthest limits of the globe. The explanations as to why they undertook such journeys, despite the risks and often failing to survive, have eluded us. One particular frustration has been that ethnographic accounts which might help us to understand the rapid dispersal of human populations in the Late Pleistocene are almost unknown – modern hunter-gatherers which might provide an analogy are tied to politically defined boundaries with no unoccupied lands into which to move. We suspect that the processes driving dispersal exist as yet unrecognised in modern hunting and gathering populations. Freuchen notably recounts a rare documented case of dispersal into a new region amongst the Netsilik of the Canadian Arctic (Freuchen 1961: 116–118). Might the motivations for this founding population setting out into a new region provide us with an insight into mechanisms of dispersal which have yet to be explored? Freuchen describes the journey of Uvigsakavsik, with two other Netsilik men and their wives and children who set out alone into the most inhospitable of unoccupied arctic tundra in the early years of the twentieth century. They journeyed south from Thule around 500km into previously unoccupied land in Melville Bay in the hope of surviving there. There was no lack of resources or ecological reason for their journey. The motivations instead lay in a moral dispute. After being accused of lying, ignored by others and with tempers running increasingly high, Uvigsakavsik could no longer bear to stay and he and his wife left his native group, gathering together his allies, two men from different groups in similar positions who were both accused of murder, intending to form a new colony far away. Remarkably Uvigsakavsik’s ‘outlaw’ colony survived, and they even accumulated a wealth of furs. After several years of ‘cooling down time’ and hardship Uvigsakavsik and his wife travelled back north, bringing with them many furs and reconciling with the original group. Moral tensions would erupt once again however, as after his wife died Uvigsakavsik returned to his untrustworthy ways. He stole two wives from other hunters, as well as stealing food and making threats to Sigdlu, the husband of one of the women he had taken. Uvigsakavsik was widely felt to be an upstart. This time, despite a climate of raised tempers, he made the mistake of staying. Sigdlu, and his ally, Odark, shot and killed Uvigsakavsik when the three went out hunting narwhal together. The Netsilik to which they belonged were careful to make sure that the authorities did not find out about what Freuchen terms ‘polar justice’. Complex and powerful emotions like desires for justice, resentment, altruistic punishment, motivations to take vengeance, jealousy, pride, forgiveness, a need for belonging and commitments to shared ethics drove this example of a successful founding colony in previously unoccupied lands. Were these emotions also part of the impetus for Late Pleistocene human global expansion? Rather than any impetus to discover or remarkable human ingenuity might widespread emotional commitments, the strong glue of love and loyalty which binds us together and structures collaboration in egalitarian societies, and their darker side, emotions such as altruistic anger, spite, vengeance, hatred, desires to punish explain some of the enigmatic elements of human dispersal? The paradox of collaboration Emotional commitments and moral emotions are rarely considered as a driving force for behaviours, or for changes in behaviours in the Palaeolithic. However human emotions are key to our deep seated abilities to collaborate, and moreover have structured and predictable effects on long term behaviour. The hyper-cooperation which characterises our social relationships from those of modern hunter-gatherers to those of modern industrialised societies depends not only cognitive and cultural sophistication but also on emotional complexity (Gamble et al. 2011; Rand and Nowak 2013; Burkhart et al. 2014). Complex social or moral emotions have evolved for functional reasons (Frank 1988, Fiske 2002). Emotions such as guilt motivate us to make amends and re-form alliances, gratitude motivates us to maintain bonds despite separation in time and space, spite and resentment guard us against exploitation, forcing us to leave exploitative alliances and deterring others from exploiting us (Fiske 2002). Social or moral emotions, focused on other’s interests and apparently irrational in the short term, have predictable long term benefits in terms of maintaining strong and effective alliances with much give and take, and structure our behaviour towards others. From an evolutionary perspective our capacity for emotional commitments, the ties that our complex emotions support, evolved through clear strategic and economic advantages (Frank 1988). Emotional commitments and trust solve the economic problem of ensuring others will help you when you are vulnerable, even if it is not in their immediate interests, by providing guarantees of one’s own emotional commitment to do likewise (Frank 1988; Nesse 2001). Like a binding contract, our emotions have been shown to effectively handcuff us to act in certain ways, foregoing the potential benefits of defection (which become unthinkable) for a long term gain and a level of economic cooperation not seen in other species (Nesse 2001; Rand and Nowak 2013; Spikins 2015). From hxaro partners amongst the Jo’Huansi of the Northwest Kalahari, to friends setting up in business emotional commitments allow us reap the mutual rewards of alliances with much give and take which are strong in crisis. However trust is hard won, based on significant investments, as well as many judgements of genuine motivations (Gottman 2011) and moreover is soon lost at the first sign of selfish behaviour. Examples include inappropriate presents in the Jo’Huansi (for whom too large a gift implies a selfish orientation to the benefits of an alliance, Weissner 2002) to a lack of remorse or guilt in business colleagues who act against the interests of others (Nesse 2001). A transition to widespread emotional commitments will have been an important threshold in the evolutionary history of human relationships and behaviour. However Randolph Nesse comments ‘In a world without commitments social exchanges arise mainly from helping relatives and trading favors. In such a world individuals can reliably be expected to act straightforwardly in their own interests. The advent of commitment changes everything. As soon as one individual finds a way to convince another that he or she will act other than in simple self-interest, social life is transformed. Now individuals must consider the possibility that others may fulfil promises and threats…Reputations become important predictors of behavior, and people begin spending vast amounts of effort to convince others that they will fulfil their promises and threats…Before you know it commitments lead people to do all kinds of things they would rather not do, whether this means carrying out spiteful threats or helping others who will never be able to reciprocate…These capacities may help explain the human tendency to emotionally extreme behaviours that often seem senseless.’ Nesse (2001: 1–2) Clearly there is a ‘dark side’ to emotional commitments and the in depth collaboration they support (Jenson 2010). Empathetic joy, sympathy, compassion and gratitude pleasantly bind us to others, however anger at cheating, spite, shame, resentment and motivations towards vengeance following betrayals repel us. This dark side of motivations to punish plays an essential role in sustaining altruism and cooperation, preventing exploitation and guarding against free-riders (Boyd et al. 2003; Sigmund 2007). We are hard wired to seek justice despite personal cost, and motivations to police those who cheat or exploit others have been so essential to human collaboration that we are rewarded by a rush of oxytocin when we do so (De Quervain et al 2004; Strobel et al. 2011). The paradox of remarkable human collaboration is that it exists and is maintained only through its darker side of motivations to punish, harm and repel. Might this ‘dark side’ of cooperation provide us with an explanation for the energy of human dispersals after 100,000 BP? Archaeological evidence for the characteristics of dispersals after 100,000 BP certainly suggests that a new explanation, beyond those provided by traditional economic or ecological perspectives, is required.

The potential for dispersion through moral disputes in modern hunter-gatherers Complex social or moral emotions motivate movements in entirely new ways, and which extend beyond the elements of small scale hunter-gatherer mobility involved in ‘mapping onto’ changing resources. Young men amongst the Baka of Cameroon and Gabon for example travel great distances to learn innovative craft skills in the hope of proving their worth and being more desirable to women (Hewlett 2013). However it is disputes and conflict motivated by moral emotions which provide the most energy to movements. Serious moral conflicts in small scale hunter-gatherers (without complex hierarchical social relationships) may not appear to be a common occurrence within the timescales visible to ethnographic study. However within archaeological timescales the episodic eruption of serious moral disputes, which are often serious and heartfelt, motivating mobility and potentially dispersion become frequent. Small scale hunter-gatherers are in fact so renowned for their harmony or conviviality and their collaborative ethics that conflicts are rarely a focus of study. Wrangham calculates on the basis of Burbank’s twelve year study of Arnhem Land aboriginal populations in Australia that rates of intragroup aggression in hunter-gatherers are of the order of 200–300 times lower than chimpanzees (Wrangham et al.. 2006 after Burbank 1992). However the maintenance of common harmony and of the collaborative ethics on which their survival depends relies on the darker side of collaborative motivations as much as the light side, and on the possibility of serious dispute. Group members must share a willingness to enter into serious and potentially life threatening conflict to preserve collaboration should the need arise. If recalcitrant transgressors were not reformed or removed a single cheat, bully or exploiter would make the collaboration on which such groups depend impossible to sustain. Serious moral disputes thus arise episodically. Boehm comments ‘It seems to be a characteristic of forager bands that most of the time social life proceeds harmoniously, even though once in a while serious problems erupt’ (Boehm 1999: 84). Marshall documents four flare ups of serious discord amongst the Nae-Nae Jo’Huansi over a period of a year and a half amongst two bands of 60–75 people (Marshall 1998: 71) for example. These disputes tend to be driven by perceived betrayals of commitments from those to friendships or mates to betrayals of group interests or shared principles, and can draw in the whole group, particularly with no dominant authority and thus few ways of resolving such disputes internally (Boehm 2011). Conflicts over egalitarian or moral principles are most divisive, most difficult to resolve and most likely to involve everyone. Far from frequent to human experience it is over archaeological timescales that such irreconcilable disputes become potentially significant. The politics of ‘simple’ hunter-gatherers are by no means simple, and it is complex judgements of emotional commitments or trust which structure hunter-gatherer social dynamics. Signs of positive motivations towards others, not only through positive behaviour but also emotional signs such as pleasure at their gain or remorse if causing harm, contribute to a high trust metric, which leads to greater support from others, whilst signs of selfish behaviour detract from it (Gottman 2011; Spikins 2012). The payoffs for being widely trusted are seen over the long term. Thus amongst the Martu of Western Australia for example those showing greatest spontaneous generosity were favoured as a hunting collaborators (Bird and Power 2015) whilst amongst the Ache of Paraguay a similar history of past generosity lead to greater support when ill or elderly (Gurven et al. 2000). Within large scale alliances Weissner documents how amongst the Jo’Huansi following a time of food shortages due to high winds and destruction of the mongongo nuts in /Xai/xai half of the population moved in with distant allies, cemented through visit and gift giving, who they could trust to support them at their cost, and without whom survival would have been impossible (Weissner 2002). Even minor transgressions reduce trust and ultimately one’s chances of survival, whilst being prepared to punish such transgressions at one’s own risk increase one’s trustworthiness. Declines in trust can often be reconciled if offenders are seen to have been punished, and to feel shame or guilt. Cheating or attempts at dominance can thus often be solved at an early stage by group sanctions such as ridicule or gossip which function to ‘bring down’ someone considered to be an upstart (see Table 2). Turnbull explains an incident amongst the Mbuti of the Ituri Forest of Zaire for example in which Cephu placed his hunting nets in front of others, unfairly catching more game (Turnbull 1961: 91–101). Cephu’s ‘cheating’ was so severe a transgression that everyone united in publicly ridiculing him. Turnbull suspected that Cephu had hoped to move away with his own group but after this incident he was left without enough allies to make a separate hunting party and was forced swallow his pride and express his remorse in grovelling apology. Counter-dominance tactic Number of societies in which observed ethnographically Display of negative public opinion 10 Criticism 6 Ridicule 5 Disobedience 7 Deposition (overthrow) 9 Fission 17 Exile 2 Execution 10 Sanctions such as ridicule and ostracism reflect a certain emotional distancing from an offender, and desires to punish, with the possibility of future reconciliation. Bird-David for example describes the case of a woman amongst the Nyaka of southern India who was ostracised following taking food and refusing to share (Bird-David 1990) and the anthropologist Jean Briggs was ostracised for three months by the Canadian Inuit for displaying anger (Briggs 1996). Ostracism is a highly painful experience, itself provoking movements. Moreover the so-called ‘Dobby Effect’, our common self-punishment in response to feelings of guilt, and arising from an evolutionary history of punishment for transgressions, which might be mitigated through remorseful prior self-punishment (Nelissen 2012), may also come in play. Pre-emptively ostracising oneself by moving far away from others may also have functioned as a form of reprisal reducing self-punishment. Declines in trust can pass a threshold point after which there is no going back, and reconciliation, at least in the immediate term is impossible. Pre-emptive movements to prevent disputes escalating are a common reason for shifts in band composition amongst hunter-gatherer populations (Lee 1979), to the extent that a social sorting of groups with different perspectives can be identified (Apicella et al. 2012). The mobility of both males and females further ensures that potential conflicts can be resolved through mobility (Hill et al. 2011). Shifts of composition of bands to accommodate complex changes in allegiances and prevent irreconcilable disputes turning into a crisis might not necessarily provide the more extreme impetus to set out to settle unoccupied regions which Uvigsakavsik experienced, however they may have played a role. Moreover the widespread within region mobility that complex moral and political alliances and disagreements promotes in turn certainly provide an environment in which like-minded allies will be aware of each other and new groups can easily be formed. The continued proximity of a transgressor can provoke intense anger and violent responses leading not only to enforced exile but also capital punishment of offenders. In a cross cultural study of 50 Pleistocene forager type societies Boehm records cases of moral conflict leading to sudden capital punishment for anti-social behaviour recorded for 24 of them (see Table 3). Almost all of these cases were ‘commitment offences’ i.e. derived from a failure to commit to group interests and norms (group intimidation, sexual transgression, taboo violation) or to personal loyalties (theft, adultery or other betrayal) see Table 3 (Boehm 2014; Knauft et al. 1991). Expulsions and killings are also recorded for what appear to be relatively minor crimes such as being quarrelsome (for example amongst the Iliaura of north central Australia, Boehm 1993, after Spencer and Gillen 1976: 263), bossiness (for the Jo’Huansi, Lee 1979), being angry (for the Canadian Inuit, Briggs 1996) lying or cheating (for example amongst the Mbuti, Turnbull 1961). Type of deviance Specific deviance Societies reporting Intimidation of group (21 reports) Intimidation by malicious sorcery 11 Repeated murder 5 Action otherwise as tyrant 3 Psychotic aggression 2 Sexual transgression (6 reports) Incest 3 Adultery 2 Premarital sex 1 Taboo violation (5 reports) Endangers group by violating taboo 5 Miscellaneous (4 reports) Betray group to outsiders 2 ‘Serious’ or ‘shocking’ transgression 2 Unspecified deviance (7 reports) 7 Moral disputes based on perceived betrayals of trust provide ample motivations to leave a group, and on occasions to take allies and find somewhere new, whether to prevent the escalation of aggression, to avoid humiliation or the pain of ostracism or to get quickly out of harm’s way. The effects of moral conflicts on dispersal Even at a conservative estimate that moral disputes might prompt new and distant colonies to be formed every 25 years, and such founding populations might travelling only 250km (half that travelled by Uvigsakavsik) egalitarian dynamics would prompt dispersal at a rate of 1000km every century (or 10km per year). More rapid movements might be expected if using boats, such as hypothesised along the coast of the Americas and into Australia. Thus the elevated rate of Late Pleistocene dispersal is easily explained through deliberate responses to move away through moral conflict. A motivation to put some distance or barrier between oneself and former friends, lovers or allies also explains why the nature of modern human dispersal is one of saltation events rather than gradual creep. Barriers such as mountain ranges or sea crossings can even be an attraction to movement of human populations under the influence of moral conflicts. The region of the Red Sea provides one such example. During the last glacial cycle there have been several periods when the Bab-El-Mandeb straits were crossable even without strong seaworthy boats (Bailey 2010). Such a topographic feature might thus have provided precisely the kind of barrier (which remains crossable back again when tempers might have calmed) which could be particularly attractive to founding populations of transgressors and their allies, explaining substantial archaeological evidence for movements into the Arabian Gulf. From the perspective of founding populations, like that led by Uvigsakavsik, the Bab el Mandeb straits might be seen as a fortuitous no man’s land. Likewise undertaking a risky sea crossing to Australia becomes more understandable if one hopes to deter any heated reprisals. Any small group heading out to sea, perhaps in the dead of night, could not have been followed by even the most ardent of individuals seeking revenge.

Conclusions ‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned’ William Congreve (1697) The Mourning Bride (Act III, Scene VIII) Betrayals of trust are strong motivators of behaviour. The resultant moral disputes and associated ‘dark side’ of collaboration are argued to provide the missing factor to understanding Late Pleistocene dispersal. Strong motivations which form part of egalitarian dynamics can push previous allies who appear to have betrayed commitments into putting some distance (or barriers) between themselves and an origin population and provide an explanation for the enigmatic speed and character of human dispersals after 100,000 years ago. Such repulsion events, whilst rare within the timescales of ethnographic study, become frequent over archaeological timescales. Active colonisations, such as a sea crossing to Australia, are difficult to explain through immediate pragmatic choices, but easy to explain through the episodic rise of the strong motivations to harm others even at one’s own expense which widespread emotional commitments bring. Moral conflicts provoke substantial mobility, added to which the furious ex ally, mate or whole group with a poisoned spear or projectile intent on seeking revenge or justice are a strong motivation to get away, and to take almost any risk to do so. Whilst we view the global dispersal of our species as a symbol of our success part of the motivations at the heart of such movements more probably reflect a darker, if no less strictly collaborative, side to human nature.