Ritual Small-scale Warfare
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__NOTOC__ Ritual warfare (sometimes called endemic warfare) is a state of continual or frequent warfare, such as is found in (but not limited to) some
tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
societies.


Description

Ritual fighting (or ritual battle or ritual warfare) permits the display of
courage Courage (also called bravery, valour ( British and Commonwealth English), or valor (American English)) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in ...
, masculinity, and the expression of emotion while resulting in relatively few wounds and even fewer deaths. Thus such a practice can be viewed as a form of conflict-resolution and/or as a psycho-social exercise. Native Americans often engaged in this activity, but the frequency of warfare in most
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
cultures is a matter of dispute.


Examples

Warfare is known to every tribal society, but some societies developed a particular emphasis of warrior culture. Examples includes the Nuer of
South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...
, the
Maasai Maasai may refer to: *Maasai people *Maasai language *Maasai mythology * MAASAI (band) See also * Masai (disambiguation) Masai may refer to: *Masai, Johor, a town in Malaysia * Masai Plateau, a plateau in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India *Maasai peopl ...
of East Africa, the Zulu of southeastern Africa, the Sea Dayaks of Borneo, the Naga of Northeast India and Myanmar, the
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
of
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, the Dugum Dani of Papua, the Araucanians of Patagonia, and the
Yanomami The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people of the Americas, indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. ...
(dubbed "the Fierce People") of the Amazon. The culture of inter-tribal warfare has long been present in
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
. Communal societies are well capable of escalation to all-out wars of annihilation between tribes. Thus, in Amazonas, there was perpetual animosity between the neighboring tribes of the Jívaro. A fundamental difference between wars enacted within the same tribe and against neighboring tribes is such that "wars between different tribes are in principle wars of extermination". It is documented that large war parties of the
Bororo The Bororo are indigenous people of Brazil, living in the state of Mato Grosso. They also extended into Bolivia and the Brazilian state of Goiás. The Western Bororo live around the Jauru and Cabaçal rivers. The Eastern Bororo (Orarimogodoge) l ...
,
Kayapo The Kayapo (Portuguese language, Portuguese: Caiapó ) people are an indigenous people in Brazil, living over a vast area across the states of Pará and Mato Grosso, south of the Amazon River and along the Xingu River and its tributaries. This l ...
,
Munduruku The Munduruku, also known as Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu, are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin. Some Munduruku communities are part of the Coatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land. They had an estimated population in 2014 of 13 ...
,
Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guarani language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * G ...
and
Tupi people The Tupi people, a subdivision of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic families, were one of the largest groups of indigenous peoples in Brazil before its colonization. Scholars believe that while they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, from abo ...
conducted long-distance raids across the interior of Brazil. Most Bororo groups were continually at war with their neighbors. In the early 20th century, thirty indigenous tribes in the Amazon basin were listed as peaceful and eighty-three were specifically described as warlike. The
Yanomami The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people of the Americas, indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. ...
of Amazonas traditionally practiced a system of escalation of violence in several discrete stages. The chest-pounding duel, the side-slapping duel, the club fight, and the spear-throwing fight. Further escalation results in raiding parties with the purpose of killing at least one member of the hostile faction. Finally, the highest stage of escalation is ''Nomohoni'' or all-out massacres brought about by treachery. Similar customs were known to the Dugum Dani and the Chimbu of New Guinea, the Nuer of Sudan and the North American
Plains Indians Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...
. Among the Chimbu and the Dugum Dani, pig theft was the most common cause of conflict, even more frequent than
abduction of women ''Raptio'' (in archaic or literary English rendered as ''rape'') is a Latin term for, among several other meanings for senses of "taking", the large-scale abduction of women: kidnapping for marriage, concubinage or sexual slavery. The equivale ...
, while among the Yanomamö, the most frequent initial cause of warfare was accusations of sorcery. Warfare serves the function of easing intra-group tensions and has aspects of a game, or "overenthusiastic football". Especially Dugum Dani "battles" have a conspicuous element of play, with one documented instance of a battle interrupted when both sides were distracted by throwing stones at a passing cuckoo dove.


See also

*
Captives in American Indian Wars Captives in American Indian Wars could expect to be treated differently depending on the identity of their captors and the conflict they were involved in. During the American Indian Wars, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples and ...
*
Communal violence Communal violence is a form of violence that is perpetrated across ethnic or communal lines, where the violent parties feel solidarity for their respective groups and victims are chosen based upon group membership. The term includes conflicts, ri ...
*
Flower war A flower war or flowery war (, ) was a ritual war fought intermittently between the Aztec Triple Alliance and its enemies on and off for many years in the vicinity and the regions around the ancient and vital city of Tenochtitlan, probably endin ...
*
Irregular warfare Irregular warfare (IW) is defined in United States joint doctrine as "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations" and in U.S. law as "Department of Defense activities not involvin ...
*
Mock combat Mock combat involves the execution of combative actions without intent to harm. Participants can engage in such sparring for ritual, training, recreational or performance reasons. The nature of mock combat can vary from Realism (arts), realistic ...
*
Napoleon Chagnon Napoleon Alphonseau Chagnon (27 August 1938 – 21 September 2019) was an American cultural anthropologist, professor of sociocultural anthropology at the University of Missouri in Columbia and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Chagno ...
*
Prehistoric warfare Prehistoric warfare refers to war that occurred between societies without recorded history. The existence—and the definition—of war in humanity's hypothetical state of nature has been a controversial topic in the history of ideas at least ...
*
Religion and violence Religious violence covers phenomena in which religion is either the target or perpetrator of violent behavior. All the religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, and metaphors of violence and war and also nonviolence and peacemaking. ...
*
Sudanese nomadic conflicts Sudanese nomadic conflicts are non-state conflicts between rival nomadic tribes taking place in the territory of Sudan and, since 2011, South Sudan. Conflict between nomadic tribes in Sudan is common, with fights breaking out over scarce resou ...
*
Ethnic violence in South Sudan Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among South Sudan's various ethnic groups. South Sudan has 64 tribes with the largest being the Dinka, who constitute about 35% of the populationOromo–Somali clashes *
Tinku Tinku, a Bolivian Quechua tradition from Norte Potosí, began as a form of ritualistic combat. In the Quechua language, it means "meeting-encounter". During this ritual, men and women from different communities will meet and begin the festivitie ...
*
War dance A war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare. Martial arts in various cultures can be performed in dance-like setting ...


References

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Further reading

* Zimmerman, L. ''The Crow Creek Site Massacre: A Preliminary Report'', US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, 1981. * Chagnon, N. ''The Yanomamo'', Holt, Rinehart & Winston,1983. * Keeley, Lawrence. ''War Before Civilization'', Oxford University Press, 1996. * Pauketat, Timothy R. ''North American Archaeology'' 2005. Blackwell Publishing. * Wade, Nicholas. ''Before the Dawn'', Penguin: New York 2006. * S. A. LeBlanc, ''Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest'', University of Utah Press (1999). * Guy Halsall, 'Anthropology and the Study of Pre-Conquest Warfare and Society: The Ritual War in Anglo-Saxon England' in *Hawkes (ed.), ''Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England'' (1989), 155–177. * Diamond, Jared. ''The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?'', Viking. New York, 2012. pp. 79–129


External links


Haida WarfareTribal warfare kills nine in Indonesia's Papua
Warfare by type Mock combat