War in Ecological Perspective Persistence, Change, and Adaptive Proc
This book deals with war in three Oceanian societies. More specifi cally, it analyzes the following: the process of war in relation to population pressure among New Guinea's Maring people; exten sion and contraction in the headhunting activities of the
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WAR IN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE PERSISTENCE, CHANGE, AND ADAPTIVE PROCESSES IN THREE OCEANIAN SOCIETIES
By Andrew P. Vayda Cook College, Rutgerr Univerrity
Plenum Press· New York and London
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Vayda, Andrew Peter. War in ecological perspective. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Ethnology - Oceanica. 2. War. 3. Human ecology. I. Title. 7540272 GN663.V38 301.6'334 ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2195-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2195-8 001: 10.1007/978-1-4684-2193-4
e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2193-4
© 1976 Plenum Press, New York Softcover reprint of the hardcover 15t edition 1976
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011 United Kingdom edition published by Plenum Press, London A Division of Plenum Publishing Company, Ltd. Davis House (4th Floor), 8 Scrubs Lane, Hariesden, London, NWI0 6SE, England All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microf"llming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To Yombran, old warrior and friend.
PREFACE
This book deals with war in three Oceanian societies. More specifically, it analyzes the following: the process of war in relation to population pressure among New Guinea's Maring people; extension and contraction in the headhunting activities of the Iban people of Sarawak during the nineteenth century; and the disruption resulting from the introduction of muskets in the warfare of the Maoris of New Zealand. In all of the analyses, I have viewed war as a process rather than simply as something that either does or does not occur and I have tried to see how the process relates to environmental problems or perturbations actually faced by people. The use of such an approach can, I believe, lead to important understandings about war and, more generally, about how people respond to environmental problems. A goal in this book is to show that this is so. Although it is only relatively recently that the significance of viewing war as a process became clear to me, my interest in war in relation to environmental and demographic phenomena is of long vii
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Preface
standing. The beginning of the studies resulting in the present book can, in fact, be said to date back to the mid-1950s when I was in New Zealand to do library research for my Ph.D. dissertation on Maori warfare. Subsequently, while at the University of British Columbia from 1958 to 1960 and in London during the summer of 1960, I began to delve into the historical material on Sarawak and the Ibans to make comparisons between the Maoris and Ibans in their warfare and ecology. Field research in the Maring region of New Guinea in 1962 to 1963 and again in 1966 enabled me to obtain data-through interviews and observation-in a society where a traditional war process had still been operating shortly before my arrival. Following the New Guinea field trips, I undertook analysis of the
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