[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
There's an interesting viewpoint about war and the agricultural revolution,
each of which came up in this thread. It's from the book, "The Sovereign
Individual." The notion is that the agricultural revolution increased the
marginal return on violence, and so did the industrial revolution -- the
more stuff people have, the more can be gained by violence. Looking at this
the other way around, there wasn't much profit in violence against
hunter-gatherers because they didn't have many possessions to take. The
authors argue that the ability to wage war is the fundamental reason for the
existence of nations.
I woudl say that in "Guns Germs and Steel" Diamond argues a somewhat converse
theory. That agriculture made sedentary life possible and that this in turn
made owning possessions possible. Argriculture also made food production more
efficient which made it possilbe for a group of humans to have individuals
whose primary task was not food production. This allowed for the birth of
professions other than food production including rulers priests warriors
scholars craftsmen etc.
According to Diamond and others I have read war was and is a key component of
the hunter gatherer life style.
