Endemic warfare

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An armed woman of the Mursi tribe of Ethiopia

Endemic warfare is the state of continual, low-threshold warfare in a tribal warrior society.

Warfare is known to several tribal societies, but some societies develop a particular emphasis of warrior culture (such as the Nuer of Sudan,[1] the Māori of New Zealand, the Yanomamö (dubbed "the Fierce People") of the Amazon,[2] or the Germanic tribes of Iron Age Europe).[citation needed]

Endemic warfare is not equivalent to "primitive warfare" in general, but is reserved for perpetual low-threshold conflicts. Communal societies are well capable of escalation to all-out wars of annihilation between tribes. Thus, in Amazonas, there was perpetual animosity between the neighboring tribes of the Jivaro. 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".[3]


Similar customs were known to the Chimbu of New Guinea, the Nuer of Sudan and the North American Plains Indians. Among the Chimbu, pig theft was the most common cause of conflict, even more frequent than 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".[4]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Diamond, Jared (2012). The world until yesterday : what can we learn from traditional societies?. New York: Viking. pp. 79–129. ISBN 978-0-670-02481-0. 
  3. ^ Karsten, Rafael (1923). Blood revenge, war, and victory feasts among the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador. Kessinger Publishing. p. 277. ISBN 978-1-4179-3181-1. 
  4. ^ Orme, Bryony (1981). Anthropology for Archaeologists. Cornell University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-8014-1398-8. 

Further reading[edit]

  • 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.

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