How War Was Invented

In the play Lysistrata by the dramatist Aristophanes, war is created by the women of Athens therefore proving Margaret Mead essay '"'Warfare is only an invention-not a biological necessity'"'. Lysistrata is based around women practicing abstinence until the men come home from war. War is a state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties. In Meade"'"s essay war is considered to be invented not biological. War is not a natural occurrence; it is a discovery that keeps modernizing itself as time goes on.

In the essay '"'Warfare is only an invention-not a biological necessity'"' Mead emphasizes the point that man was not born with the need to War. She states '"'warfare of this sort is an invention like any other of the inventions in terms we order our lives'"' (Mead 20). This is made clear by the civilizations that she uses as examples who do not know what war is. '"'Does not the absence of war among the Eskimos, just go to confirm the point that it is the state of development of the society which accounts for war and nothing else?'"' (Mead 21). Mead also points out other civilizations that do not have a war per se but do have a form of conflicts. War is created by the civilization and its surroundings that push civilizations toward warfare.

War does not just mean guns and blood, but any type of serious open conflict can be considered war. This essay explains how war is always being upgraded to new forms of conflict. Mead talks about a civilization that does not have full out wars but '"'quarrels'"'. Had this civilization been exposed to guns and weapons, these '"'quarrels'"' would have turned into deadly bloody conflict exceedingly fast. Progression is shown in all types of conflict until eventually we got to exclusively using atomic bombs as threats. '"'people who do not know of duels, will not fight duels'"' (Mead 21). Before duels were invented, obviously there were no duels. This proves Mead"'"s