# Ritual warfare > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ritual_warfare > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ritual_warfare.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_warfare > Source revision: 1352640612 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Symbolic expressions of combat scenarios}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} [[File:Mursi-DmitriMarkine.jpg|thumb|An armed woman of the [Mursi tribe](/source/Mursi_people) of Ethiopia]] [[File:War deaths caused by warfare.svg|thumb|right|The percentages of male deaths caused by war in eight tribal societies. ([Lawrence H. Keeley](/source/Lawrence_H._Keeley), Archeologist, ''[War Before Civilization](/source/War_Before_Civilization)'')]] {{War}} '''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](/source/tribe) societies. ==Description== Ritual fighting (or '''ritual battle''' or '''ritual warfare''') permits the display of [courage](/source/courage), 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](/source/conflict_resolution) and/or as a psycho-social exercise. [Native American](/source/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas)s often engaged in this activity, but the frequency of warfare in most [hunter-gatherer](/source/hunter-gatherer) cultures is a matter of dispute. ==Examples== Warfare is known to every tribal society, but some societies developed a particular emphasis of warrior culture. Historical examples include the [Nuer](/source/Nuer_people) of [South Sudan](/source/South_Sudan),{{cite book|last=Diamond|first=Jared|title=The world until yesterday : what can we learn from traditional societies?|year=2012|publisher=Viking|location=New York|isbn=978-0-670-02481-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/worlduntilyester00diam_0/page/79 79–129]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/worlduntilyester00diam_0/page/79}} the [Maasai](/source/Maasai_people) of East Africa, the [Zulu](/source/Zulu_people) of southeastern Africa, the [Sea Dayaks](/source/Iban_people) of Borneo, the [Naga](/source/Naga_people) of Northeast India and Myanmar, the [Māori](/source/M%C4%81ori_people) of [New Zealand](/source/New_Zealand), the [Dugum Dani](/source/Dugum_Dani) of [Papua](/source/Papua_(province)), the [Araucanians](/source/Mapuche) of Patagonia, and the [Yanomami](/source/Yanomami) (dubbed "the Fierce People") of the Amazon. The culture of inter-tribal warfare has long been present in [New Guinea](/source/New_Guinea).{{cite web |date=21 May 2003 |title=The Absence of War |url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/ecology/article_1230.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707211344/https://www.opendemocracy.net/ecology/article_1230.jsp |archive-date=7 July 2017 |access-date=25 May 2008 |publisher=open Democracy}}{{cite news |title=Papua New Guinea massacre of women and children highlights poor policing, gun influx |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-10/png-tribal-massacre-poor-policing-weapons-influx-fuel-violence/11297136 |work=ABC News |date=11 July 2019}} Communal societies are well capable of escalation to all-out wars of annihilation between tribes. Thus, in [Amazonas](/source/Amazon_Basin), there was perpetual animosity between the neighboring tribes of the [Jívaro](/source/Jivaroan_peoples). 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".{{cite book |title=Blood revenge, war, and victory feasts among the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador |last=Karsten |first=Rafael |year=1923 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |isbn=978-1-4179-3181-1 |page=277}} It is documented that large war parties of the [Bororo](/source/Bororo), [Kayapo](/source/Kayapo), [Munduruku](/source/Munduruku), [Guaraní](/source/Guaran%C3%AD_people) and [Tupi people](/source/Tupi_people) conducted long-distance [raids](/source/Raid_(military)) across the interior of Brazil. Most Bororo groups were continually at war with their neighbors.{{cite book |last1=Heckenberger |first1=Michael |title=The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place, and Personhood in the Southern Amazon, A.D. 1000-2000 |date=2005 |publisher=2005 |isbn=9780415945998 |pages=139-141 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Ecology_of_Power/hAKratAxR18C?hl}} In the early 20th century, thirty indigenous tribes in the Amazon basin were listed as peaceful and eighty-three were specifically described as warlike.{{cite book |last1=Davie |first1=Maurice R. |title=The Evolution of War: A Study of Its Role in Early Societies |date=1929 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780486162218 |pages=251-262 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/lUPTc-JImcUC?hl=&gbpv=1}} The [Yanomami](/source/Yanomami) of Amazonas traditionally practiced a system of escalation of violence in several discrete stages.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}} 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](/source/Dugum_Dani) and the [Chimbu](/source/Kuman_language_(New_Guinea)) of New Guinea, the Nuer of Sudan and the North American [Plains Indians](/source/Plains_Indians). Among the Chimbu and the Dugum Dani, pig theft was the most common cause of conflict, even more frequent than [abduction of women](/source/abduction_of_women), 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".{{cite book |title=Anthropology for Archaeologists |last=Orme |first=Bryony |year=1981 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-1398-8 |page=196 }} 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.{{cite book |title=The Dugum Dani |last=Heider |first=Karl |year=1970 |publisher=Aldine Publishing Company |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-202-01039-7 |page=111 }} ==See also== *[Captives in American Indian Wars](/source/Captives_in_American_Indian_Wars) *[Communal violence](/source/Communal_violence) *[Flower war](/source/Flower_war) *[Irregular warfare](/source/Irregular_warfare) *[Mock combat](/source/Mock_combat) *[Napoleon Chagnon](/source/Napoleon_Chagnon) *[Prehistoric warfare](/source/Prehistoric_warfare) *[Religion and violence](/source/Religion_and_violence) *[Ethnic violence in Papua New Guinea](/source/Ethnic_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea) *[Sudanese nomadic conflicts](/source/Sudanese_nomadic_conflicts) *[Ethnic violence in South Sudan](/source/Ethnic_violence_in_South_Sudan) *[Oromo–Somali clashes](/source/Oromo%E2%80%93Somali_clashes) *[Tinku](/source/Tinku) *[War dance](/source/War_dance) ==References== {{reflist}} ==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.](/source/Timothy_Pauketat) ''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== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080117162622/http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/haida/havwa01e.html Haida Warfare] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070809021736/http://www.head-hunter.com/warfare.html Tribal Warfare and Blood Revenge] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090718223236/http://www.usd.edu/anth/crow/crow1.html The Crow Creek Massacre] *[http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6Z87A2?OpenDocument Tribal warfare kills nine in Indonesia's Papua] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617175331/http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6Z87A2?OpenDocument |date=17 June 2009 }} Category:Warfare by type Category:Mock combat Category:Political anthropology --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ritual warfare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_warfare) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_warfare?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.