Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixi. (1917), No. 0. 



VI. An Ethnological Study of Warfare. 

 By W. J. Perry, B.A. 



(Coniiuiiiiicatcd by /'rofessor G. Elliot Smith, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.) 

 (Received and read April 24.th, IQ17.) 



The world is accustomed to think that warfare is a normal 

 feature of savage life. It is conjectured that the struggle for 

 existence between human societies has been partly conducted 

 by this means, the stronger aud better organised community 

 enslaving, exterminating, or driving out the weaker. The 

 earliest records of history tell of wars and conquests, and it 

 is inferred that warfare was also a feature of pre-historic times. 



The assumption that warfare is the result of the natural 

 pugnacity of mankind is made so universally and confidently 

 that it may seem rash to endeavour to approach the study of 

 human v/arfare from any other standpoint.-"^ Mr. William 

 McDougall says, " the instinct of pugnacity has played a part 



second to none in the evolution of social organisation a 



little reflection will show that (pugnacity) far from being wholly 

 injurious, has been one of the essential factors in the evolution 

 of the higher forms of social organisation, and, in fact, of 

 those specifically social qualities of man, the higher develop- 

 ment of which is an essential condition of the higher social 

 life."^ This is an authoritative and representative opinion re- 

 garding the effect of human pugnacity on the development of 

 society. Mr. McDougall also says, " The races of men cer- 

 tainly differ in respect to the innate strength of this instinct."'^ 

 In other words, the pugnacious instinct of certain peoples has 

 led them to advance in culture, while races less endowed with 

 this instinct have been left behind, and have not developed 

 "specifically social qualities." The relations of savages to-day, 

 according to Mr. McDougall present the phenomenon of " the 

 uncomplicated operation of the instinct of pugnacity.'"* He 



1. In dealing with the so-called instinct of pugnacity, I am not 

 concerned with sporadic examples of personal combat, as iri the case of 

 two males who struggle for the possession of a female, but with organ- 

 ised conflicts into which the element of personal grievance does not 

 necessarily enter. 



2. "An Introduction to Social Psychology," Qth ed., London, 1015, 

 pp. 27g, 281-2. 



3. Op. cit., p. 27Q, 117, e.s. 



4. Op. cit., p. 280. 



/?/ne 6th, igry. 



