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Blood Rites
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Mon Jul 15 2002 at 12:02:09
In
Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War
,
Barbara Ehrenreich
explores the
emotion
s and
psychology
of
warfare
.
She starts with an aspect of
evolutionary biology
that I hadn't encountered before. During early stages of human development,
man
was, like other
primate
s, the
prey
of stronger and more powerful creatures. Avoiding those
beast
s and banding together to challenge them became a deeply entrenched part of human
psychology
. Some vestiges of those early experiences remain within us, such as the
nightmare
s children have about being attacked by
animal
s and the thrills of
horror
movies in which
monster
s prey on people.
Eventually, people gained the abilities and tools necessary to become
predator
s instead of prey. However after the animal threat weakened, the underlying emotions shifted their focus to
sacrifice
s (both animal and human) and war. The evolutionary background gives warfare the significance, fervor, and flavor of a
religion
.
Ehrenreich traces how attitudes about
war
evolved throughout
history
. At first, all men in the
tribe
acted as
warrior
s. In some
culture
s, in fact, fighting in
battle
was a
rite of passage
to become a man. Later on, after various
technological
improvements, warrior elites arose, such as
knights
in
Europe
and
Japan
ese
samurai
. Those elites fought and dominated the
social structure
, while the masses provided supplies and support. With the development of
gun
s and the formation of
nation-state
s,
military
forces became large
bureaucratic
institutions driven by strong
nationalist
ic forces.
Blood Rites
in an excellent study of warfare that includes many innovative ideas supported by strong arguments.
printable version
chaos
fishhooks and leather bring us closer together
Octavia Butler
Banned Films
Polycythaemia Rubra Vera
Working beliefs of most Episcopalians
Nationalist
Bureaucratic
Technological
Rite of passage
religion
sacrifice
Predator
Animal
nightmare
beast
man
emotion
Barbara Ehrenreich
primate
Warfare
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