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#1 |
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Location: Manila, Phils.
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Original Time magazine photo essay is here. The captions of the pics below are:
Maasai warriors clash with members of the Kalenjin tribe on a hill overlooking the Olmelil Valley. The battles have been taking place daily and follow codified, age-old traditions.Looks to me that this a good scheme to wage an armed conflict ... Last edited by migueldiaz; 15th October 2009 at 11:29 AM. |
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#2 |
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More pics from this website.
A forum where the topic was discussed has this comment: We discussed this in an anthropology class I took in college. It is a real fight for land, but it's also very formal and traditional affair. A time and place is agreed upon by both sides beforehand. Only traditional weapons like bows and arrows, spears, and slings (one can be seen here can be used. In a way it is like a sport... where some of the players die).If I recall correctly, isn't this the same scheme that the ancient Greek city-states used? That is, the warring factions will decide meet one afternoon in a field, engage in battle, and then at a certain point a winner is proclaimed or something like that? |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: What is still UK
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Rather scary.
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#4 |
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Looks to me like something that should be sorted out by chasing a rolling cheese downhill then getting pissed afterwards.
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#5 |
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Better than doing it with AK-47s or shotguns, is my vote.
On a straight-up ethnographic weapons note, did any of you notice that we have (apparently) a new type of bow here? That first picture shows bows with short, stiff staves--perhaps one was originally a chair leg? The spring power comes from the springs (!) attached to the bowstring. Not all the bows have that, and I'll be that's why the arrow embedded in someone's cheek instead of going all the way through. Short bows like they've made probably aren't pulling more than 10-20 pounds, and a 50 pound pull is the legal minimum for hunting deer in the US. Still, that re-purposing of springs (from a car?) to power a bow is a new one on me. Very interesting, at least technically. Best, F |
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#6 |
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War is war... beautiful and deadly...
I notice a lot of the stuff seems made from scrapped materials.. for example arrowheads made from nails... the Atayal tribe in Taiwan still makes arrowheads this way... but it's more for show, preserving old ways, and the occasional hunting and fishing trip.... and the practice of recycling truck springs for blades... etc.etc. I wonder when they say that the bow was only used for hunting... and that it was found to be a more deadly than the machete... Does that mean that the traditional spear-based warfare shifted to machetes (when Imperialistic powers made those widely available) only become a bow-based fighting style? |
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#7 |
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Hi KuKulz,
Thing about machetes is that, unless they're really sharp, they can be stopped by thick cloth, such as these guys are wearing. None of these weapons are terribly deadly, and I suspect that they're less deadly than the old spears and seme were. Still, it is combat. Best, F |
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#8 |
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Interesting stuff. Let's stay away from the inevitable socio-political discussion and focus on the weapons. If we get thread-drift into other areas, I will have to lock this one.
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#9 |
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Happy to, Andrew.
A couple more weapons observations, though. One is that we seldom talk about African slings, but there is apparently a picture of a maasai slinger (8th down). Anyone know how widespread slings are in that part of the world? Another is that there is increasing use of recycled and repurposed materials, for lots of socio-political reasons I won't go into here ![]() Best, F |
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