[ExI] War ----- It's a meme!

[Darren Greer]

 "War has never been observed among a
Himalayan people called the Lepchas or among the Eskimos. In fact,
neither of these groups, when questioned by early ethnographers, was
even aware of the concept of war."

Martin Van Creveld has a theory about this in his *Decline of the Nation
States*. He calls Inuit society (Eskimo is very culturally offensive, by the
way) a modality, the kind of tribe that only goes to war when a number of
tribes join together in warfare with a temporary leader united under a
single banner but still maintaining tribal autonomy. He cites the war
against Troy in *The Iliad* by the tribes under the temporary leadership of
Agamemnon and Menelaus to be a good example of this. (recall Achilles and
the Myrmidons.) Opportunities for warfare under these circumstances are
exceedingly rare, and usually involve a cultural taboo being violated. The
Inuit have a unique societal structure and are likely the exception rather
the the rule. I can't speak for the Lepchas, but I would imagine it would be
something similar.

Darren

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 1:25 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> John Horgan has an article in Scientific American about why tribes go
> to war that might be of interest. I know that Keith has suggested that
> war is caused either by hard times or an expectation of hard times,
> but I feel this is a weak theory as it seems to cover all cases and
> therefore is untestable. Horgan thinks that war is learned behaviour.
>
> Some Quotes:
>
> Analyses of more than 300 societies in the Human Relations Area Files,
> an ethnographic database at Yale University, have turned up no
> clear-cut correlations between warfare and chronic resource scarcity.
> Similarly, the anthropologist Lawrence Keeley notes in War before
> Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford University
> Press, 1997) that the correlation between population pressure and
> warfare "is either very complex or very weak or both."
>
> Margaret Mead dismissed the notion that war is the inevitable
> consequence of our "basic, competitive, aggressive, warring human
> nature." This theory is contradicted, she noted, by the simple fact
> that not all societies wage war. War has never been observed among a
> Himalayan people called the Lepchas or among the Eskimos. In fact,
> neither of these groups, when questioned by early ethnographers, was
> even aware of the concept of war.
>
> Warfare is "an invention," Mead concluded, like cooking, marriage,
> writing, burial of the dead or trial by jury. Once a society becomes
> exposed to the "idea" of war, it "will sometimes go to war" under
> certain circumstances. Some people, Mead stated, such as the Pueblo
> Indians, fight reluctantly to defend themselves against aggressors;
> others, such as the Plains Indians, sally forth with enthusiasm,
> because they have elevated martial skills to the highest of manly
> virtues.
>
> ------------------
>
>
> BillK
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-- 
"I don't regret the kingdoms. What sense in borders and nations and
patriotism? But I miss the kings."

-*Harold and Maude*
 (Recall
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