. . . an Anthropological PerspectiveWARFARE . . .

WARFARE 

A constant cannot explain a variable. 

Proximate vs. Ultimate cause 

Positive vs. Negative feedback systems 

Resource Competition

 * * * * * 

  Infrastructure Structure Superstructure  

Resource Conflict Male Supremacy Competition Warfare Complex

and Alliances

Scale and Intensity of Warfare

Warfare

Conflict

Competition

Population / Resources

Chimpanzee Warfare

Chimpanzee Warfare

1. In 1968, Jane Goodall stopped feeding bananas to the Chimps at Gombe.

2. Chimps gradually split into two separate groups:

• the larger Kasakela Community to the north.

• the slightly smaller group of about a dozen chimps that moved south to the Kahama Valley.

3. By 1972, the Kahana group had become a completely separate community.

4. At about the same time, parties of Kasakela males began making repeated forays south.

Chimpanzee Warfare (cont.):

5. Early in 1974, a gang of 5 Kasakela chimps from the northern group killed a single male from the southern group.

--He was never seen again.

6. One month later, 3 Kasakela males caught one of the prime Kahana males and severely beat him.

--He was never seen again.

7. Later that year, 5 Kasakela males attacked Goliath (a Kahana male) and severely beat him.

--He was never found again.

Chimpanzee Warfare (cont.):

8. In 1975, 4 Kasakela males caught an old female, named Madam Bee and beat her until she was inert.

• She died 5 days after the attack.• Her daughter, Honey Bee, cared for her until she died.

9. Early in 1977, several males from the northern Kasakela group attacked and killed Charlie, a southern Kahanna male.

10. Late in 1977, 5 Kasakela males from the north pounced on Sniff, the sole remaining Kahanna male, and left him with a broken leg and bleeding from countless wounds.

Significant Features of Chimpanzee Warfare:

1. Gradual extermination of one community by another.

2. Raids occurred over a period of 6 years.

3. Northern males were not simply defendingterritory.

--most attacks were deep into the southern territory.

4. The entire Kasakela group now travels, feeds and sleeps freely throughout the southern area.

Ecological Context of Chimpanzee Warfare:

1. Cannibalism:

a. Passion and Pom (ate 5 of the 6 babies born in one year and

may have eaten as many as 10 babies over a 4-year period).

b. Bodies of at least 3 males never found.

2. Hunting:

a. Chimps are omnivorous and feed individually.

b. Cooperation occurs only during hunting.

--mostly baboons and small antelope.

c. Food sharing occurs only with meat

d. 30 chimps at Gombe made about 40 kills per year.

--about one kill every 9 days.

Ecological Context of Chimpanzee Warfare (cont.):

3. Tool Use:

a. termite sticks

• nutritional value of insects• made for future use

b. sponges

c. toilet paper

d. nests

Ecological Context of Chimpanzee Warfare (cont.):

4. Comparison of Gombe Chimps with Budongo Chimps.

a. Tool use found only at Gombe.

b. Hunting and food sharing found only at Gombe.

c. Cannibalism found only at Gombe.

d. Warfare found only at Gombe.

5. Population Pressure

a. 20 square miles needed to support 1 chimp at Gombe

b. Budongo rain forest supports 17 chimps in 1 square mile.

c. Budongo forest can support about 300 times as many chimps per square mile as Gombe.

“Well, well --another blonde hair. . . . Conducting more ‘research’ with that Jane Goodall Tramp?”

Segmentary Lineage Organization

Tribe

Clans

Maximal Lineages

Minimal Lineages

Lineage Membership

and Residence

ab

c

d

efgh

Segmentary Lineage and

Political Expansion

* * *

Systems expand, not necessarily

people

Somali Expansion in the Horn of Africa

Ethiopia

And

Somalia

Yanomamo Warfare

YANOMAMO WARFARE 

A constant cannot explain a variable. 

Proximate vs. Ultimate cause 

Positive vs. Negative feedback systems 

Resource Competition 

Protein Scarcity vs. Protein Deficiancy 

* * * * *   Infrastructure Structure Superstructure  

Resource Conflict Weiteri Complex Competition Warfare

and Alliances

Chagnon vs. Harris

Causes of Yanomamo Warfare

Chagnon: --Fighting over Women

--”We like meat, but we like women better.”

Harris: --Protein Scarcity

--Mechanism of Population Control

--Male Supremacy Complex

--female infanticide

Chagnon vs. HarrisProblems with Their Explanations

Chagnon: --Female shortage created by Yanomamo themselves.

--Only raid villages for women with which raiding already exists. (Warfare, therefore, not explained.)

--proximate explanation

-- emic explanation

Harris: --Protein Scarcity vs. Protein Deficiency (Big Mac)

--Yanomamo Shamatari population increase

-- from 200 to 2,000 people, 1900 – 1970-- 1,000% increase over 70 years = 14% increase per year

Evidence of Protein Scarcity

1. Five-day hunting expeditions with no success.

2. Primary game animal: Monkeys and other solitary animals

3. Lower protein consumption

a. less than other Amazonian Indians.

b. Less than the Dobe Ju/’hoansi

4. Reliance on insects for food. (cost/benefit)

5. Evidence of recent adaptation

a. Boil bananas only

b. Fish only with poison

c. Poorly constructed canoes

Amazonian IndiansProtein Consumption

Alliance Spiral Warfare Spiral

Nomohoni Genearalized ReciprocalReciprocity Woman Exchange Raid

The Feast

Spear FightsBalanced Mutual FeastingReciprocity Ax Fights

Club Fights

Side-Slapping Duels

Negative Sporadic and Chest-Pounding DuelsReciprocity Reciprocal

Trading

Yanomamo Politics: Alliance vs. Warfare

House Temperature

Decreases

Furnace Restores House Temperature

Negative Feedback System

Neutron Bomb

Positive Feedback System

M.I.R.V.

I.C.B.M.

Hydrogen Bomb

Atomic Bomb

Yanomamo Positive-Feedback System

Population Pressure

Central Villages Peripheral Villages

Larger Villages Smaller Villages 40 – 250 25 - 100

Villages Closer Villages Dispersed higher density lower density

Warfare Constant Raiding less Frequent Patanowa-teri raided some villages not involved

25 times in one year in raids for over 5 years

Alliance System Alliance System elaborate absent

Population Pressure(cont.)

Central Villages Peripheral Villages

Headman Headman greater authority little authority during warfare

Cultivation Cultivation more important less important

Fighting Fighting more elaborate less elaborate

Weiteri Complex Weiteri Complex more pronounced less pronounced

Population Pressure(cont.)

Central Villages Peripheral Villages

Female Infanticide Female Infanticide greater less

M/F M/F 0-14: 157 / 100 0-14: 121 / 100all ages: 130 / 100 all ages: 115 / 100

Polyandry Polyandry absent practiced

sexual liaisons is polyandry and sexual primary source of liaisons institutionalized conflict in village

Yanomamo Village Expansion

Yanomamo Sociopolitical Evolution

Plains Indian Warfare

Explanation:

1. Plains Indian subsistence behavior, social

organization and warfare evolved as predictable outcomes of changes in demography, population-resource

relations and labor requirements, as well as

increasing resource competition.

2. The evolution of Plains Indian ecology and

warfare constituted a positive-feedback

system resulting from the infusion of new

subsistence technologies and a new productive relationship between

Indians and resources.

Impact of the Horse and Gun on Bison Hunting:

1. Changed the spatial relationship between

Indians and bison

2. Increased size of hunting territory

3. Increased the speed and effectiveness of the buffalo hunt

4. Increased reliability of hunting

5. Reduced per capita labor costs (cost/benefit)

6. Individualized bison hunting

7. Industrialized the hunt

Impact of the Hide Trade on Bison Hunting:

1. Changed Population/Resource (P/R) relationship

between Indians and bison

2. Shift from subsistence to commercial economy

3. Individual male Indians became self-employed

entrepreneurs

4. Producers on the margins of an expanding global

economy

Infrastructural Changes:

  1. Increased immigration onto the

Plains

2. Dramatic increase in the size of the Plains Indian Population

3. Precipitous decline in the size of the bison

population.

Population/Resources

IndianImmigrati

on onto the Plains

Decline in Bison Population

BisonYear Population

1800 40,000,0001850 20,000,0001865 15,000,000

-- -----1870 14,000,0001880 395,0001889 1,091

1850: Comanche reported eating their horses and

raiding New Mexico settlements for food.

1853: Cheyenne and Arapaho reported spending

half the year in a state of starvation.

Early Reports of Indian Food Shortages:

Increasing hunting pressure on bison led to a

greater “massing” of bison herds and to increased local variation in bison

availability.

* * * * *

This resulted in reduced access to

bison for some Plains Indian

groups.

Size of Herd Sightings Increased with Time

Causes of Decline in Bison Numbers:

1. Overhunting

2. Grazing competition

3. Diseases

4. Predation

5. Climate

Structural Changes:

1. Evolution of independent family

2. Increase in polygyny

3. Brideprice inflation

4. Emerging class differentiation

5. Increasing warfare

6. Evolution of political-military alliances

7. Increasing importance of military societies

"There were many brave and successful warriors of the Cheyenne who never went on …(scalping expeditions)…, who on their war journeys tried to a void coming in close contact with enemies. Such men went to war for the sole purpose of increasing their possessions by capturing horses: that is, they carried on war as a business--for profit. Some of these men who possessed high reputation for courage, success, and general well-doing-- made it their boast that they never killed a man, and perhaps never counted coup. 

--George Grinnell

"A Plains Indian with only one wife would always be poor, but it is a fine sight to see one of those big men among the Blackfeet, who has two or three lodges, five or six wives, twenty or thirty children, and fifty to a hundred head of horses; for his trade amounts to upward of $2,000 a year, and I assure you such a man has a great deal of dignity about him."

--Charles Larpenteur

Increase in Polygyny:

"In contrast to an ondei son, …(a lower rank son)… has had to think first of economic returns and secondarily of brave deeds, of coup counts. ... Given a situation in which an enemy has fallen from (his) horse, the young …(lower rank)… warrior is torn between counting coup and riding after the enemy's horse. The rich man's decision is much simpler; he counts coup."

--Mishkin (1940)

Emerging Class Differentiation:

"A man could not even court a girl unless he had proved his courage. That is one reason why so many were so anxious to win good war records. They were all afraid of what people, and especially the women, would say if they were cowardly. The women even had a song they would sing about a man whose courage had failed him. 'If you are afraid when you charge, turn back. The desert women will eat you.' It was hard to go into a fight, and they were often afraid, but it was worse to turn back and face the women."  

--John Stands-in-Timber

Enculturation of Martial Values:

Plains Indians generally believed that buffalo were supernatural in origin and existed in limitless numbers underground. A Bison Calling Ceremony was performed each year to coax them from their underground shelters.

“In 1881, representatives of many tribes assembled on the North Fork of the Red River for the Kiowa Sun Dance where a Kiowa shaman named Buffalo Coming Out vowed to call on the herds to re-emerge from the ground. The Kiowa believed the bison had gone into hiding in the earth, and they still call a peak in the Wichita Mountains "Hiding Mountain."

Sioux

Plains IndianAlliances:

Blackfoot

Assiniboine- Cree

Mandan-Hidatsa

Sioux

I have to stop now!