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. . . an Anthropological Perspective

WARFARE . . . . . . an Anthropological Perspective. WARFARE A constant cannot explain a variable. Proximate vs. Ultimate cause Positive vs. Negative feedback systems Resource Competition * * * * * Infrastructure  Structure  Superstructure

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. . . an Anthropological Perspective

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  1. WARFARE . . . . . . an Anthropological Perspective

  2. 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

  3. Scale and Intensity of Warfare

  4. Warfare • Conflict • Competition • Population / Resources

  5. Chimpanzee Warfare

  6. Chimpanzee Warfare • 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. • 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.

  7. 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.

  8. Chimpanzee Warfare(cont.): • 8. In 1975, 4 Kasakela males caught an old female, named MadamBee 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 Kasakelamales from the north pounced on Sniff, the soleremaining Kahanna male, and left him with a broken leg and bleeding from countless wounds.

  9. Significant Features of Chimpanzee Warfare: 1.Gradual exterminationof one community by another. 2. Raids occurred over a period of6 years. 3.Northern males werenotsimplydefending territory. --most attacks weredeep into the southern territory. 4. The entire Kasakela group nowtravels, feeds and sleepsfreely throughout the southern area.

  10. Ecological Context of Chimpanzee Warfare: 1. Cannibalism: a. Passion and Pom (ate5 of the 6 babies born in one year and may have eaten as many as 10 babiesover a 4-year period). b. Bodies of at least 3 malesnever found. 2. Hunting: a. Chimps are omnivorous and feedindividually. b. Cooperation occurs onlyduringhunting. --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.

  11. 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

  12. 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.

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

  14. Tribe Clans Maximal Lineages Minimal Lineages Segmentary Lineage Organization

  15. Lineage Membership and Residence b a c d h g f e

  16. Segmentary Lineage and Political Expansion * * * Systems expand, not necessarily people

  17. Ethiopia And Somalia Somali Expansion in the Horn of Africa

  18. Yanomamo Warfare

  19. 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

  20. 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

  21. Chagnon vs. Harris Problems 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

  22. 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

  23. Amazonian Indians Protein Consumption

  24. Alliance SpiralWarfare Spiral Nomohoni GenearalizedReciprocal ReciprocityWoman ExchangeRaid The Feast Spear Fights Balanced Mutual Feasting Reciprocity Ax Fights Club Fights Side-Slapping Duels Negative Sporadic and Chest-Pounding Duels Reciprocity Reciprocal Trading Yanomamo Politics: Alliance vs. Warfare

  25. House Temperature Decreases Furnace Restores House Temperature Negative Feedback System

  26. Neutron Bomb • Positive Feedback System • M.I.R.V. • I.C.B.M. • Hydrogen Bomb • Atomic Bomb

  27. Yanomamo Positive-Feedback System

  28. Population Pressure Central VillagesPeripheral Villages Larger VillagesSmaller Villages 40 – 25025 - 100 Villages CloserVillages Dispersed higher density lower density Warfare ConstantRaiding less Frequent Patanowa-teri raided some villages not involved 25 times in one year in raids for over 5 years Alliance SystemAlliance System elaborateabsent

  29. Population Pressure (cont.) Central VillagesPeripheral Villages HeadmanHeadman greater authority little authority during warfare CultivationCultivation more important lessimportant FightingFighting more elaborate less elaborate Weiteri ComplexWeiteri Complex more pronounced less pronounced

  30. Population Pressure (cont.) Central VillagesPeripheral Villages Female InfanticideFemale Infanticide greaterless M/FM/F 0-14: 157 / 100 0-14: 121 / 100 all ages: 130 / 100 all ages: 115 / 100 PolyandryPolyandry absent practiced sexual liaisons is polyandry and sexual primary source of liaisons institutionalized conflict in village

  31. Yanomamo Village Expansion

  32. Yanomamo Sociopolitical Evolution

  33. Plains Indian Warfare

  34. Explanation: 1. Plains Indian subsistence behavior, social organization and warfare evolved as predictable outcomes of changes in demography, population-resource relations andlabor requirements, as well as increasing resource competition. 2. The evolution of Plains Indian ecology and warfare constituted apositive-feedback systemresulting from the infusion ofnew subsistence technologiesand anew productive relationshipbetween Indians and resources.

  35. Impact of the Horse and Gun on Bison Hunting: 1. Changed thespatial relationshipbetween Indians and bison 2. Increasedsize of hunting territory 3. Increased thespeedandeffectivenessof the buffalo hunt 4. Increasedreliabilityof hunting 5. Reducedper capita labor costs(cost/benefit) 6. Individualizedbison hunting 7. Industrializedthe hunt

  36. Impact of the Hide Trade on Bison Hunting: • 1. ChangedPopulation/Resource (P/R)relationship • between Indians and bison • 2. Shift fromsubsistencetocommercialeconomy • 3. Individual male Indians becameself-employed • entrepreneurs • 4. Producers on the margins of an expandingglobal • economy

  37. Infrastructural Changes: 1. Increasedimmigration 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

  38. Indian Immigration onto the Plains

  39. Decline in Bison Population Bison YearPopulation 1800 40,000,000 1850 20,000,000 1865 15,000,000 ------- 1870 14,000,000 1880 395,000 1889 1,091

  40. Early Reports of Indian Food Shortages: 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.

  41. 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.

  42. Size of Herd Sightings Increased with Time

  43. Causes of Decline in Bison Numbers: 1. Overhunting 2. Grazing competition 3. Diseases 4. Predation 5. Climate

  44. Structural Changes: 1. Evolution ofindependentfamily 2. Increase inpolygyny 3.Bridepriceinflation 4. Emergingclass differentiation 5. Increasingwarfare 6. Evolution of political-militaryalliances 7. Increasing importance ofmilitary societies

  45. "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

  46. Increase in Polygyny: "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

  47. Emerging Class Differentiation: "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)

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