In
Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War,
Barbara Ehrenreich explores the
emotions 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
primates, the
prey of stronger and more powerful creatures. Avoiding those
beasts 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
nightmares children have about being attacked by
animals and the thrills of
horror movies in which
monsters prey on people.
Eventually, people gained the abilities and tools necessary to become
predators instead of prey. However after the animal threat weakened, the underlying emotions shifted their focus to
sacrifices (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
warriors. In some
cultures, 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
Japanese
samurai. Those elites fought and dominated the
social structure, while the masses provided supplies and support. With the development of
guns and the formation of
nation-states,
military forces became large
bureaucratic institutions driven by strong
nationalistic forces.
Blood Rites in an excellent study of warfare that includes many innovative ideas supported by strong arguments.