Thursday, March 20, 2008

Flower Wars


Well....war is the great alter of human sacrifice..it would seem...and is often recalled and celebrated..if that's possible...with ceremonies and rituals...lemesee if I can say something straight...


The genetic code remembers and passes things on from generation to generation...and there's another kindof "code"....cultural... which is passed on with ceremonies and rituals...even the animals have rituals and ceremonies...all kinds of mating behaviors....and ways of doing things...and the cultural code is very hard to imagine and pin down...some of it is surely genetic...but some of it too seems to be kindof artistic...just made up and passed along...anyway there are these two codes always at work...and now I'm going to see if I can get some help for this!...brb...


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Lets remember that, until relatively recently, the vast majority of humans were farmers who did not receive any significant benefit from civilization, which was the prerogative of a tiny elite (the governing and priestly classes, city dwellers in general). In fact, that elite ruthlessly exploited farmers for its own benefit. They were what historian William H. McNeill calls macroparasites in his book Plagues and Peoples.






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well...that wasn't quite what I had in mind..but is so interesting I thought to quote it!...and it's a blog...brb...


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There seems little reason to mince words or pull punches about man's aggressive instincts. In prehistoric times man was a hunter and a killer of other men. The killer instinct in the prehistoric male is clearly attested by archaeology in fortifications, weapons, cave paintings, and skeletal remains. Whether these "instincts" are biologically or culturally induced remains a matter of controversy, but by the end of prehistoric times man was a fighter, capable of waging organized warfare of the sort seen in later historical societies.


NEOLITHIC WARFAREArther Ferrill




Well...what is it?...biological (genetic) or cultural...???...what I would like to latch on to here is the ceremonies and rituals caveman used...and set them side by side with the history of war ceremonies...I mean...just consider "war paint" of the Indians....who are a Neolithic people...


And that's something I keep coming back to!...the Neolithic was very much alive in many parts of the world in the nineteenth century...where it could be observed by minds honed by the scientific revolution...all across America were Neolithic peoples...the Indians...and as the colonists moved west..and moved forward with the inventions of technology too!...they had encounters, and could make observations, of the Indians...lemego look up "war paint"...brb...
There was much ritual and ceremony in American Indian warfare...brb...
well...this is something!...there is an actual path...
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The Great Indian Warpath (GIW) — also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail — was that part of the network of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans which ran through the Great Appalachian Valley . The system of footpaths (the Warpath branched off in several places onto alternate routes and over time shifted westward in some regions) extended from what is now upper New York state to deep within Georgia. Various Indians traded and made war along the trails, including the Catawba, numerous Algonquian tribes, the Cherokee, and the Iroquois Confederacy. The British traders' name for the route was derived from combining its name among the northeastern Algonquin tribes, "Mishimayagat" or "Great Trail", with that of the Shawnee and Delaware, "Athawominee" or "Path where they go armed".
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Is it good make up, or just good genes? introducing Lauren Hutton's face disc!...sheesh...informercial on...
but to the war path...brb...
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A reason that the pacification of the redwood tribes took so long lay in the natural obstacles of the terrain. High mountains, deep streams, thick undergrowth all explained why "It should be so difficult a matter to bring to justice a few score of savages," noted the district commander in 1864, "rendering the rapid and certain movements of troops a matter of difficulty and affording innumerable hiding places to the enemy."

California Military History
California and The Indian Wars

War in the Redwoods
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What a remarkable page!...and would seem to give the account of the last stand of the Neolithic warriors in Central North America...the US of A.
but before I curl up..sleep...lemeget the Flower Wars...
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The exact nature of the Flower Wars is not well determined but a number of different interpretations of the concept exist. The widely accepted[weasel words] idea of the Flower Wars is that it was a special institutionalized kind of warfare where two enemy states would plan battles through mutual arrangement in order to satisfy the religious needs of both combatants for war captives to use in sacrificial rituals, but also, possibly, to train young warriors and enable social mobility which for the lower classes was primarily possible through military service. This view is based on a number of quotes from early chroniclers and also from the letters of Cortés. However in recent years this interpretation has been doubted by scholars such as Nigel Davies[2] and Ross Hassig,[3] who argues that "the mutual arrangement" of the flower war institution is dubious, and suggest that Flowery War was in fact a low-intensity, sustained conflict with the Aztec side trying to fatigue the Tlaxcalteca in order to later conquer them entirely.
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Plains warriors loved ornaments. They decked themselves with trophies of war and the hunt. Locks of hair from the scalp of an enemy and soft white ermine tails dangled from the seams of the ceremonial shirt. Grizzly-bear claws and buffalo teeth were strung on otter skin for necklaces. Quivers, tobacco pouches, and medicine bags were made from pelts of panthers, otter, …




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There was some of this on the Viking Warriors show last night...a question was being pursued...why were the Vikings so formidable?...and a thought was, judging from the elaborate war things they had...each sword with it's own name...belts decorated with magic amulets and such...in short, their concern with how they looked...indicated they were really "in" to being warriors...and that spirit can...and indeed does...carry the day in a battle.


Oh, I got my quotes out of order!...but they still work okay...
Pic is another by Curtis and from same site I used for the Indian burial pic...I think...
DavidDavid
Tree in the Door

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