When War Began by Otterbein, Keith F. (9780813337784) | Browns Books
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When War Began : The Evolution of Military Organizations

Part of the History & warfare series
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Early warfare first arose among hunting peoples who sometimes had lethal encounters with other hunting peoples and, later, among peaceful agricultural peoples whose societies achieved statehood before embarking upon military conquests.

Early warfare developed along two separate paths. The hunting of large game animals is critical to the development of the first path: hunters engaged in intergroup aggression which involved the killing of other hunters and devised a mode of warfare based upon ambushes and lines.

Foragers, who led sedentary and domesticated existences, lie at the beginning of the second path: intergroup aggression was absent; primary states developed only in these regions, but once city-states arose, a mode of warfare based upon battles and siege operations sprang forth. Scholars who study war are at war with each other.

One faction believes that warfare arose about five million years ago and has characterized humankind in all places ever since.

The other faction believes that warfare arose only about 5000 years ago when the first states developed, and war then spread to peaceful hunter-gatherers and agriculturists.

Keith F. Otterbein identifies two separate paths along which warfare developed.

The "Hawks" (members of the first faction) who generally subscribe to a "Killer Ape" theory or the "Hunting Hypothesis", describe a mode of warfare based upon ambushes (raids) and lines (battles).

The "Doves" (members of the second faction) on the other hand usually subscribe to "Developmental" theories or "World Systems" theory, and these "Doves" describe a mode of warfare based upon battles and siege operations. Scholars who look at big game hunters see warfare, while scholars who look at early agriculturalists see peace.

Big game hunters, both in antiquity and in the ethnographic present, do indeed appear to engage in intergroup aggression which involves the killing of other hunters, while it has been noted by anthropologists Julian Steward and Elman Service, among others, that primary states arose in regions where warfare was not prevalent.

A region in which warfare occurs is a region in which agriculture cannot develop: a peaceful, settled life for at least 2000 years is a prerequisite for the development of agriculture.

In this book, Otterbein describes primary or pristine states in four regions: Mesoamerica, Peru, Mesopotamia and North China.

Otterbein delineates how warfare arose in these regions after statehood was achieved, and how the two "paths" that lead to warfare do, at times, intertwine.

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Product Details
Westview Press Inc.,U.S.
081333778X / 9780813337784
Hardback
United States
288 pages
General (US: Trade) Learn More

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