Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut….

verfasst von Popeye, 07.10.2003, 10:41

-->Die naiv friedliche Vorstellung von
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (hier nachzulesen) vom Leben der „Wilden“ deckt sich offenbar nicht mit der Wirklichkeit.

THE FREQUENCY OF WARFARE IN STATE AND NONSTATE SOCIETIES

How frequent are primitive wars, and do nonstate societies engage in warfare less frequently than states or civilized societies? These questions are related to the question of how intense primitive warfare is. Again turning to cross-cultural research, we find that many of the myths about primitive war are untrue.
The three cross-cultural surveys mentioned earlier also include data on the frequency of warfare. All these studies show that warfare has been extremely frequent among primitive societies.19 In the sample of fifty societies, 66 percent of the nonstates were continuously (meaning every year) at war, whereas only 40 percent of the states were at war this frequently. In this survey, warfare was therefore found to be less frequent in state societies. The larger sample of ninety societies, however, indicated that the frequency of war increased somewhat widi greater political complexity; 77 percent of the states were at war once a year, whereas 62 percent of tribes and chiefdoms were this war prone. Nevertheless, 70 to 90 percent of bands, tribes, and chiefdoms went to war at least; once every five years, as did 86 percent of the states. All these figures support yet another survey, which found that about 75 percent of all prestate societies went to war"at least once every two years before they were pacified or incorporated 'by more dominant societies" and that warfare was no more frequent"in complex societies than in simple band or tribal societies."In the sample of U.S. western Indian tribes, which consisted wholly of nonstate societies, 86 percent were raiding or resisting raids undertaken more than once each year. And such high frequencies of fighting were not peculiar to North America.20 For example, during a five-and-a-half-month period, the Dugum Dani tribesmen of New Guinea were observed to participate in seven full battles and nine raids. One Yanomamo village in South America was raided twenty-five times over a fifteen-month period. These independent surveys show that the great majority of non-state societies were at war at least once every few years and many times each generation. Obviously, frequent, even continuous, warfare is as characteristic of tribal societies as of states.

The high frequencies of prestate warfare contrast with those of even the most aggressive ancient and modern civilized states. The early Roman Republic (510-121 B.C.) initiated a war or was attacked only about once every twenty years. During the late Republic and early Empire (118 B.C.-A.D. 211), wars started about once every six or seven years, most being civil wars and provincial revolts.21 Only a few of these later Roman wars involved any general mobilization of resources, and all were fought by the state's small (relative to the size of the population), long-service, professional forces supported by normal taxation, localized food levies, and plunder. In other words, most inhabitants of the Roman Empire were rarely directly involved in warfare and most experienced the Pax Romana unmolested over many generations.
Historic data on the period from 1800 to 1945 suggest that the average modern nation-state goes to war approximately once in a generation.22 Taking into account the duration of these wars, the average modern nation-state was at war only about one year in every five during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even the most bellicose, such as Great Britain, Spain, and Russia, were never at war every year or continuously (although nineteenth-century Britain comes close). Compare these with the figures from the ethnographic samples of nonstate societies discussed earlier: 65 percent at war continuously; 77 percent at war once every five years and 55 percent at war every year; 87 percent fighting more than once a year; 75 percent at war once every two years. The primitive world was certainly not more peaceful than the modern one. The only reasonable conclusion is that wars are actually more frequent in nonstate societies than they are in state societies—especially modern nations.
(Auszug aus: Lawrence H. Keeley, War before Civilization, Oxford University Press, 1996, S. 32/33)

Wem dies noch nicht blutig genug ist, der möge auf der Internet Seite von <a href=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM> R.J. Rummel stöbern.
Popeye

Thread gesperrt

 

gesamter Thread:

• Dopamin-verspricht uns das Glück? - Nickelman, 06.10.2003, 13:45
  • Na ist das nicht eine schöne Widerlegung der Macht- und Gewalttheorie? - R.Deutsch, 06.10.2003, 16:36
    • Re: Ganz im Gegenteil - Tassie Devil, 06.10.2003, 17:06
      • Psychologie ist die Krankheit, für deren Heilung sie sich hält:-) (owT) - R.Deutsch, 06.10.2003, 17:58
        • Re: Hast recht, ich meinte die menschliche Psyche ;-) (owT) - Tassie Devil, 06.10.2003, 18:16
    • Re: Vielleicht haben dottore und Du zwei unterschiedliche Perspektiven? - Tempranillo, 06.10.2003, 17:45
    • Vollkommen richtig, Reinhard! Es sind m.E. insbesondere anthropologische Gründe, - Galiani, 06.10.2003, 22:35
      • Re: Es wird immer toller: Anthropologische Kriege - Tassie Devil, 07.10.2003, 00:06
    • Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut…. - Popeye, 07.10.2003, 10:41
      • Re: Ohne Staat knallt's fast dauernd - Dimi, 07.10.2003, 12:38
        • Re: Ohne Staat knallt's fast dauernd - Popeye, 07.10.2003, 13:13
          • Re: Ohne Staat knallt's fast dauernd - Dimi, 07.10.2003, 14:03