Lloyd Warner's book 'A Black Civilization' is a comprehensive ethnography of the Murngin (Yolngu) people of northern Australia. Published in 1937, it's one of the v few detailed accounts of Aboriginal warfare amongst other topics. A thread:
He opens with a stark declaration that the Murngin couldn't exist without warfare, that it is essential to the structure of their society.
One of the primary reasons for this is the polygynous basis of sex relations. Each married man has an average of three and a half wives, leaving a reservoir of unattached young men. These guys are the fodder for social violence and are the primary victims and aggressors.
This brutal imbalance is often theorised to be a evolutionary mechanism behind sex relations, but it's rare to see it so clearly demonstrated.
"warfare, then, is one of the mechanisms on which polygyny is based"
Causes of warfare are pinned down to four major reasons - blood revenge, theft of a woman, black magic and improperly gazing upon the clan totem.
"the idea underlying most Murngin warfare is that the same injury should be inflicted upon the enemy group that one's own group has suffered"
A socially accepted form of death was for women who spied upon sacred male rituals or who polluted the production of emblems and totemic objects with their presence. Noone objected to such offences being punished lethally, even across clan lines.
The six kinds of Murngin warfare - a camp fight, secret murder, night raid, open fight, pitched battle and ceremonial fight. Also a kind of 'women's combat' which apparently isn't one of the main six.
The arms and weapons of the Murngin.
The camp fight or Nirimaoi, usually a result of adultery or cuckolding. Sounds like a classic bar scrap, lots of bravado and posturing and rarely ends in death.
The secret murder, the 'Narrup', is usually a surprise attack on a sleeping person. Despite one person doing the slaying, the whole clan is held responsible and an older man assumed to be the 'pusher' or agitator.
The 'Maringo' or 'death adder' night raid is a lethal extra-clan attack, intended to avenge a death. A ritual procedure involving the dead man's relics is performed at camp before the men use a 'snake' formation to attack their enemy.
The 'Milwerangel' or general fight has no great ceremonial basis, but rather a quick skirmish.
The 'Gaingar' is a more serious and organised form of pitched battle. These occur after a hysteria of emotion has been reached after tit for tat killings and a resolution is needed to prevent further deaths.
Finally, the 'Makarata', or ceremonial peace making fight is a blend of highly controlled ritual, dance and machismo, but directed towards placating emotions with minimal bloodshed.
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