Non-Lethal Warfare: Difference between revisions

* Several tribal societies meet at certain times of the year with neighbors and line up to fight until they are stopped by their elders, typically at "first blood" or something similar. This led anthropologists to believe they were far more gentle then they were. In fact the normal form conflict takes among them is more often thievery and exchange of assassination and can generate casualties far more in proportion to the population then a major war among a technological people while these ritual "battles" were more noticeable for raiding parties were off in the bush where the anthropologist was not. This phenomenon by comparison, though real territorial and political stakes can be wagered, is often more a tourney then a battle, for it is a way for young warriors to show off their skills, and they will often have a party after wordsafterwards (one people mentioned in Keegan's ''History of Warfare'' had the custom of deliberately fattening pigs in the expectation of feasting after one of these fights). Battle as we think of it by contrast had to wait for special circumstances like riches that must be defended and strongly tempt attack (in other words cities and intense cultivation) as well as the possibility of siege which few tribal peoples have the skills for even though they may have strongpoints. Also battle requires a conqueror with the willingness and firm authority to press a land grab beyond a few bits of fallow ground that the other team is willing to lose if need be. Which in turn requires an authority many tribal patriarchs do not really have.

* Several Italian towns had traditional ritual rumbles between neighborhoods. This went through the spectrum from a gaudy but more or less harmless pageant to something not dissimilar from a gang fight. This phenomenanphenomenon is in some ways like the seasonal ritual fights among tribal people'speoples described above.