Benedict Adamson wrote:
>
> stefan.drawert_at_... wrote:
> ...
> > since all sartarite clan do raid cattle, I just wondered what damage
> [due raiding] must be done for a raid being a cause for war/feud or a
> legal case on tribe level?
>
> Kill someone on the raid.
>
> > another question: why aren't the raiders being pursued in their own
> tula?
> ...
>
> The raiders were prepared; the defenders were not. To pursue in
> strength is, in effect, to stage a counter raid, which takes time to
> organize.
>From "Imperial Man" by Robin Fox and Lionel Tiger on raids and
skirmishes:
"The actual violence took much less time than the elaborate male rituals of violence, of preparation and celebration. In many cases there was nothing obvious to fight about. Sometimes 'real' causes could be assumed -- disputes over territory, hunting rights, waer holds, women real or imagined insults to tribal honour. But for the most part, enemies were what were traditionally defined as such. No Shoshone needed any 'real' cause for fighting the Sioux: they existed to be fought. A great deal of this infighting was highly ritualzed so that the men could get the maximum satisfaction from their sense of danger and exercise of courage, while neither side lost too many lifes... The showing of courage and skill and the braving of dangers were more important than the wholesale slaughter of the enemy."
I think cattle raiding falls into this category.
Jeff
Powered by hypermail