This week, ending in November 12 2015:
Today's thread is for open discussion of:
History in the academy
Historiographical disputes, debates and rivalries
Implications of historical theory both abstractly and in application
Philosophy of history
And so on
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion only of matters like those above, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
I'm working on myth and group identity formation in the ancient world, and find myself incorporating a number of anthropological perspectives. Anderson's Imagined Communities seems like a great work to include, but he only really looks at post-printing press states. Could anyone point me in the direction of more recent work (since IC is a little old now) that deals with more general issues of community building through shared narrative, preferably in a time-independent context?
Margaret Mead's theory that warfare is an "invention" and only 15,000 years old is bullshit.
She claims that "Eskimos" (does she mean Inuits and Yupiki?) didn't even understand the concept of warfare when they were told of it, although they had multiple cases of infighting and murder. Apparently to Miss Mead, this doesn't classify as war.
Definition of War: "a state of competition, conflict, or hostility between different people or groups."
She only ever cites that other arctic tribes or those in the depths of the Amazon do not engage in warfare with one another. Considering that these people live so remotely, it is completely possible to say that they have no need for warfare for the prospect of hostile competition with other numerous tribes is less likely. On the other hand tribes and clans that lived in close proximity to one another such as the Ancient Germanic tribes of the Rhine, whose societies were basically built around war.
Considering warfare as a concept transcends our species, it is safe to say that it has been a part of humanity since our beginning. Chimpanzees actively participate in warfare amongst one another. Groups of males invade the territory of another troop, they seek out and battle with the males of the other trooping killing them, then they kill the babies, and rape/take the females as their own, and now that territory is under their control. Such behavior was observed in the Gombe Chimp War and the Ngogo 10 campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/science/22chimp.html?_r=0
Since warfare isn't only practiced by humans then how can it be a human invention?