Endemic Warfare (Paperback)

Endemic warfare is the state of continual, low-threshold warfare in a tribal warrior society. Endemic warfare is often highly ritualized and plays an important function in assisting the formation of a social structure among the tribes' men by proving themselves in battle. Ritual fighting permits the display of courage, masculinity and the expression of emotion while resulting in relatively few wounds and even fewer deaths. Thus one can view the practice as a standard form of conflict-resolution and/or as a healthy psycho-social exercise. Native Americans often engaged in this activity but warfare occurs or occurred much more rarely in most other hunter-gatherer cultures. In more formalised social environments representative champions - not necessarily leaders themselves - may represent a party and engage in ritual single combat. Warfare is known to several tribal societies, but some societies develop a particular emphasis of warrior culture