Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Chris.
Here are some fascinating books that use an evolutionary lens for studying deep human history:
Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth, by Peter Turchin.
Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth
The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution, by Richard Wrangham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goodness_Paradox
Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, by Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo3615170.html