Good God y’all ping.
“What is war good for?”
Well, it made Edwin Starr a one-hit wonder...
If we take the Old World ancient civilizations (which I can comment on -- I don't have enough knowledge on MesoAmerica to comment), take Sumeria, the Indus Valley or the Nile Region for example
In the fertile crescent, the first stirrings of civilisation would be led by language, then agriculture c. 10,000 to 8,000 BC(you need to have spoken language for agriculture, hunting wouldn't necessarily need that, imho -- look at hunting animals)
Then to make agriculture actually be a permanent source of food rather than be the alternative to hunting only, you need irrigation -- and THAT is what elevated Sumeria, the Indus Valley and the Nile regions to civilization.
By having irrigation, food became assured, there was time to rest and think.
Permanent houses could be built along with communal buildings.
In the Indus valley and Sumeria public baths were built
War starts a few millenia later when folks see a purpose to attacking others -- if they are not competing for food, which is basically the same, what's the point of fighting?
But war was necessary for moving up a step, new inventions, from copper then bronze then iron swords, new technologies like the wheel, chariots, etc -- war has its role to play.
Not a new theory.
Harry Lime: Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.
In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.