This is coolbert: I made mention in some previous blogs about pre-historic warfare. How this Israeli is studying this type of war. And how pre-historic warfare in the Indo-European model more resembled cattle rustling than anything else.

Now, pre-historic warfare can be seen to this day. On the island of Papua-New Guinea [PNP]. Tribesmen do demonstrations for tourists of this form of warfare that they have practiced for millennium. And in some cases practice to this day. PNP is a mountainous country with many small isolated communities of tribesmen, who often are in constant conflict with other neighboring tribes. This state of war has lasted until the last few decades and was a constant in the lives of these isolated tribesmen.

As I have previously said, demonstrations of warfare are put on for the benefit of tourists. A village is attacked by "mudmen", tribesmen who daub their bodies with mud. These "mudmen" wield bows and arrows, spears, and stone hatchets in their attack. The object is to kill all the adult males, and carry off the young and the women. Grass and straw huts are then set ablaze and valuables such as pigs are carried off as booty. This is how war was carried out between these tribes for millenniums.

And what was the sources of war among these tribesmen? Settling scores seems to be a major theme [sort of like the mafia in Sicily, except on a larger scale]. One person from a certain tribe is killed by a member of another tribe. This sets off a blood feud that can only be expunged by war and further killing. Like I have said, the carrying off of women, young, and pigs also seems to be a major factor. Booty that can enrich a village. Insults are also a source of friction leading to war. Especially in the paying of dowries. If a proper dowry is not paid, this is an insult that cannot be ignored. War is a proper answer.

And feuds can last a long time amongst the warring villages. Ancestors killed at war are smoked and kept on display for future generations to view. The bodies of all killed at war are kept on display as a warning and a provocation to those living that vengeance and vigilance go hand in hand. This is somewhat like again, Sicily, where waving the bloody shirt was a common practice. A villager would keep the bloody shirt of a husband who was murdered in a mafia vendetta and wave it in the front of a small child to remind that child that someday honor would be restored by that child growing up to be a man that would kill to avenge the death of the father.

Prehistoric war seems to resemble the feuds of the Hatfields and the Mc Coys that lasted for about a century in American Appalachia. Killing leads to killing and further killing and so forth. On a larger scale in primitive societies, but with common motivation.

coolbert.