HIST/PSY 436 History & Psychology of East Asian Warrior Cultures

Rainer Buschmann, PhD & Kevin Volkan, PhD

What is Violence and Aggression?

1. Defensive Aggression

This is the aggression that takes place when an animal or person is injured or threatened with physical injury.

2. Maternal Aggression

It is common knowledge that animals defending their young can be especially dangerous to anyone who tries to disturb them. We are not positive if this specifically occurs in Humans?

Do Humans Exhibit Maternal Aggression?

3. Predatory Aggression

This is usually related to the procurement of food – ie hunting and killing to eat, rather than fighting off something that wants to eat you! Usually this type of aggression is directed towards members of different species.

Battle at Kruger Park

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4. Display Aggression

Aggression for display is usually either to keep territory or to impress potential mates with fitness. These are both related to passing on the best genes to offspring.

Display aggression is often related to sexual access

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Cichlid example – from Konrad Lorenz. Display aggression is directed towards members of the same species - is usually related to reproductive access (which would be meaningless between species). Because of this, display aggression is related to maintaining or changing social rank. Among animals this type of violence is not typically fatal. However, among primates (including humans) this is not the case. With humans the increase in fatality is related to our ability to create and use tools that have specialized into weapons.

Display aggression is not usually lethal…however with chimps and humans it can be pretty bad

Display aggression is related to a general raising of biological readiness (fight/flight response) in the face of danger and an increase (at least for humans) in the mental state of anxiety.This is associated with immediate survival (ie eating) and long-term (ie genetic) survival. In animals these are relatively distinct. In humans the division is not so clear cut.

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By the way, Chimps are very inefficient killers. Their victims are often maimed only to die later. There is some evidence, however, that they will use very rudimentary weapons to defend themselves.

This is especially the case when it involves group aggression

Humans have possibly ritualized this type of aggression

On a more positive note humans sublimate inter-human conflict away from violent behavior

Even though dominance hierarchies in social groups are apparent, these are maintained through more symbolic means.

And When Weapons are introduced….

“…Weapons, then, are the intermediaries between the

aggressive human intelligence and its desires” (Turney-High,

1949/1991, p. 6)

In primates dominance hierarchies in social groups are apparent. Humans have elaborated this hierarchy to include organized aggression for example military ranks.

Humans have elaborated this hierarchy to include organized aggression – cf military ranks.

In humans the differences between this different types of aggression are not so clear cut. When this is combined with our innate tendency to form dominance hierarchies we get some very interesting ‘warrior cultures’. So how do these warrior cultures differ from East to West?

Both have some forms of individual combat, though there seem to be more in the East. This may be due to the development of projectile weapons (guns).

Traditional Asian warrior cultures have been tempered by philosophies that are much different than those found in the West. In this course we refer to Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

In traditional Asian Martial arts the goal is for the violence to be more like predatory aggression and not display aggression – i.e. calm controlled, non emotional, as if in a meditative state. For these martial artists violence is only used as a last resort. Most traditional martial arts will insist they do not promote violence but instead prevent it.

This is different than the display aggression where obvious emotional signs are displayed. In modern times as martial arts have been adapted (sublimated) into sports, they have taken on more and more aspects of display aggression where the violence is ritualized. This ritual includes various rules of engagement, language, uniforms, etc.

Though we are not sure what inter-species sparring is all about!