Talk:Prehistoric warfare

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Other groups, such as the famous Bushmen of the Kalahari live extremely peaceful lives with conflict and murder all but unheard of.

Ah, the noble savage...man, what century is this? Is there a source for this claim? From what I remember about them they have just as many conflicts as any other group of people. Adam Bishop 17:58, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I'm actually more astonished by the preceding statement. I would like to know which hunter gatherer groups wage war. Can someone answer this?

I'm interested of that too, if there is no reference, the sentence should be removed. For me, that sentence sound like referring to some swidden agriculturalists in Amazon area. If that's the case, then it should be no problem to "Which of these states was more common among early humans is still unknown, and is a matter of deep debate." That line also need some kind of reference.

Also i think that this part: "What is common among those groups that remain and fight frequently is that warfare is highly ritualized, with a number of taboos and practices in place that limit the number of casualties and the duration of a conflict, a situation known as endemic warfare. Among tribal societies engaging in endemic warfare, conflict may escalate to actual warfare every generation or so, for various reasons such as population pressure or conflict over resources, but also for no readily understandable reason.", refers mostly to agriculturalists in New Guinea and gardener/pastoralist warfare by large?

Hunter Gatherer groups generally do not recogonize themselves as having territory, at least not until recently. And the Ju/wasi or whatever you want to call em' mentioned above do indeed get themselves murdered sometimes, Nisa is a good book to read if you want a personal picture of Botswana ju/wasi society. They do not war though because they do not have property (beyond what can be carried), however in Namibia the army does recruit memebrs from hunter groups to help them hunt people. Either way, hunter gatherers are not p74rehistoric peoples so i guess it doesnt matter. I think this whole paragraph should be removed. ~FreddieResearch

That is a good, good point. What is common among those groups that still remain and fight frequently is that warfare is highly ritualized...

"Those groups that still remain?" What does that mean? --RL

[[]] My question is the same: You say "What is common among those groups that still remain and fight frequently..." What do you mean by "those groups that still remain"? Do you mean current groups living lives similar to what we think Paleolithic and/or Neolithic people might have lived? I think it would be good to clarify this. Athana 00:44, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

You say "Agriculture created large enough surpluses to enable farmers to spend some of the year as warriors, or to support a dedicated class of fighters." This statement should be qualified if not outright stricken from the article. There must be scores of theories about why warfare increased through time. This may be one, but it's only one. And it should also be referenced; otherwise it lowers one's confidence in the article. Athana 00:53, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't disagree with this line, but would like a reference: "While there are no cave paintings of battles between men armed with clubs, the development of the bow is concurrent with the first known depictions of organized warfare consisting of clear illustrations of two or more groups of men attacking each other." Especially it should be added that where these paintings are found geographically.

[edit] Bible Times

I know many of you might not think the Bible is all-out true, but it is still a historical document. The very first "battle" or "war" recorded in It is Genesis 14. I posted this same thing in "Ancient Warfare" as the story, I think, fits better over there. Colonel Marksman 17:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Is it the first war recorded though? Ungovernable Force^{Got something to say?} 05:41, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

the Hebrew Bible is a historical document to be sure, documenting Canaanite history from ca. the 7th to 4th century BC. That's more than a millennium after our first reliable sources concerning warfare of the Assyrian Empire. dab (ᛏ) 07:53, 27 October 2006 (UTC)