Battle
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First evidence of war- Mesolithic, 12,000 years ago
Ice Age- all animals died off–advent of human hunter
Humans and animals hunt; as a way of reenacting the primal transformation from prey to predator
War and violence reassure the fact that people are no longer prey
With decline of wild predator and game populations, there would be little to occupy the male who specialized in hunting-p. 123
Because farming was a major food source; no uniquely male occupation left- woman could care for domesticated animals- 124
Men who failed as warriors have been reviled as “woman”-p.126- woman looked upon as inferior gender
War-making is not another occupation that men have monopolized, it is an activity that has defined manhood itself
Male leadership, just like adult male status in general, must be proved with blood
Woman are not incapable of fighting
No compelling biological or natural reason who men have starred in the drama of war
Men make war to establish fact that they are “real men”
Insults inflicted in one war call forth new wars of retaliation- effects of one war lead to the next war
No longer brush off a war party
Each human society be as war-ready as the other societies it is likely to encounter; that spears be matched with spears
“but ultimately we fight them because they are different, and their difference is threatening in its challenge to the validity of the ideas we live by”-135
We make enemy look less human so it is easier to kill
Given time, fighting will cause two sides to become more like each other- war represents perhaps the most imitative activity known to man
Practice of naming a child after a particularly valiant enemy was once widespread
Even with wide race and differences, enemies can admire each other for their conduct as warriors-141
Warrior depends on his weapons that enables him to exploit the labor of others
Warriors become predators with in human species
Warriors and leaders come from aristocracy
Birthright of men to become warriors
Woman are tools of warfare
Some people can never stop fighting- menace to society
Battle is rebirth; boyman
To the true member of the warrior elite, every war can be a holy one
War brings back captives for religious sacrifice
War is often pointless destruction
Factors Favoring the New Religions
Trade differs from war in that it channels greed into the nonviolent acquisition of wealth; merchant class helped end religious sacrifices
Factor- growth of lower class composed of the representative of military defeated peoples
Glory no longer belongs to those who triumph by force but to those who are triumphed over
Religion is no longer about being militarily strong
Peasants and common people beginning to get involved in war
Those who fell in battle could be seen as martyrs analogous to Jesus-170
Crusades against European heretics represent the ultimate fusion of church and military-171—-“kill them all; God will know which are His”
Religion of was, held little room for the common man, much les the common woman
Nationalism replaces religion
Missile-bases warfare favored mass, sub-elite armies in another war too; it made killing as impersonal business