[Brad from Tennessee]

This event could easily have happened in modern California with more up-to-date weapons. I think mankind is hardwired for war. If people would accept that notion and embrace it they could learn how to manage it on a national scale. Native Americans and many other cultures developed ritual warfare. One form involves combat between two individuals from warring tribes. This avoided mass casualties which could endanger the collective gene pool.

[SunkenCiv]

There’s a Stone Age site somewhere along the Nile valley, 15,000 years old or so; if it had been made of more durable materials it would be called a city due to its size. All that remained were the post-holes and many thousands of arrow- and spear-heads from the battle that resulted in the burning of the whole place to the ground and permanent abandonment of the site. Sounds an awful lot like a war to me. :’) The notion of the Noble Savage is long gone, or I like to think so, and at its heart is a bigoted notion. Before 1492 (and before every other point of contact, IMHO the seas have never been much of an obstacle) tribe attacked tribe, city-state destroyed city-state, it was one big long vicious kill-o-rama.

[Joe 6-pack]

"It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way."

~Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian