Ritual warfare (sometimes calledendemic warfare) is a state of continual or frequent warfare, such as is found in (but not limited to) sometribal societies.
Ritual fighting (orritual battle orritual warfare) permits the display ofcourage, masculinity, and the expression of emotion while resulting in relatively few wounds and even fewer deaths. Thus such a practice can be viewed as a form ofconflict-resolution and/or as a psycho-social exercise.Native Americans often engaged in this activity, but the frequency of warfare in mosthunter-gatherer cultures is a matter of dispute.[1]
Warfare is known to every tribal society, but some societies developed a particular emphasis of warrior culture. Examples includes theNuer ofSouth Sudan,[2] theMaasai of East Africa,[3] theZulu of southeastern Africa,[3] theSea Dayaks of Borneo,[3] theNaga of Northeast India and Myanmar, theMāori ofNew Zealand, theDugum Dani ofPapua,[2] theAraucanians of Patagonia,[3] and theYanomami (dubbed "the Fierce People") of the Amazon.[2] The culture of inter-tribal warfare has long been present inNew Guinea.[1][4]
Communal societies are well capable of escalation to all-out wars of annihilation between tribes. Thus, inAmazonas, there was perpetual animosity between the neighboring tribes of theJívaro. 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".[5]
It is documented that large war parties of theBororo,Kayapo,Munduruku,Guaraní andTupi people conducted long-distanceraids across the interior of Brazil. Most Bororo groups were continually at war with their neighbors.[6] In the early 20th century, thirty indigenous tribes in the Amazon basin were listed as peaceful and eighty-three were specifically described as warlike.[3]
TheYanomami of Amazonas traditionally practiced a system of escalation of violence in several discrete stages.[citation needed] The chest-pounding duel, the side-slapping duel, the club fight, and the spear-throwing fight. Further escalation results in raiding parties with the purpose of killing at least one member of the hostile faction. Finally, the highest stage of escalation isNomohoni or all-out massacres brought about by treachery.
Similar customs were known to theDugum Dani and theChimbu of New Guinea, the Nuer of Sudan and the North AmericanPlains Indians. Among the Chimbu and the Dugum Dani, pig theft was the most common cause of conflict, even more frequent thanabduction 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".[7] Especially Dugum Dani "battles" have a conspicuous element of play, with one documented instance of a battle interrupted when both sides were distracted by throwing stones at a passing cuckoo dove.[8]
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