Sunday, November 12, 2006

Bataille on bataille

I casually took up an old copy of The Tears of Eros and read the following: something hard to believe,bien qu'il soit passionant...

Prior to the end of the late Paleolithic period, war seems to have been unknown. It is only after this time--or after the intermediary period known as the Mesolithic--that we find the first accounts of men killing each other in combat. [...] The victors annihilated the vanquished group. In the wake of combat they massacred enemy survivors, prisoners, and women. But young children of both sexes were probably adopted by the victors who must have granted them the same status as their own children after the war was over. As far as we can tell, judging from the practices of modern primitives, the only material gain from war was the ultimate growth of the victorious group. (57-58)

See the starangeness of the latter part of the above! "Probably adopted," "must have granted," "as far as we can tell," (can we at all?). This is not even a theory. Yet, it's fun...