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But last night, there was the Moondata LABproject 36 going on at O Patro Vys. If you’re a regular reader, you already know that this is my favorite new event to attend in this wonderful city. Last night featured some amazing musicians from super awesome bands like Patrick Watson, The Slip, The Besnard Lakes, The Bell Orchestre and so on. It was cool. More than cool. Fun! Meditative. Etc. It was a sweet old time that ended up in my being drunk and making new friends… and, being bought drinks by and talking gardening with this cute boy I have a great big huge crush on. Lovely, LOVELY night I tell ya. Not as lovely morning. Waking up with a hangover is not exactly the best way to lead a productive day. It took me ’til at least 4 just to get over the physical repercussions of all that fun and loveliness. I managed to get a lot of shit done today nevertheless. And now I have try and lead a normal life for the next week in the midst of all the dangerous chaos that is now my life (referring to the boxes here). And once again, the weather complements this tempestuous period with a huge and messy storm. Should be fun.

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So if you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting anything lately, it’s because I’ve been busy making things happen. I’ve been working alot and only getting like one day off at the time. It seems to be the trend lately. My friends, weekends are so last year. Now we’re going for days off one at the time. They’re difficult enough to take as it is, so to make my life easier, I’m just going to take them in one at the time. yes yes.
I’ve been busy going to alot of awesome shows lately. Wednesday, there was The Luyas and XiuXiu. And then last night there was Do Make Say Think. It was, singularly, the best show I’ve ever seen. It was like multiple orgasms…except there was ALOT of other people involved in the ordeal. Seriously. BEST SHOW EVER. And I’ve seen alot of shows. Seeing shows is my life!!!! But this. This was something totally out of this world. It just took a 10 piece band to take me there. It was fuckin PHENOMENAL!!!!!! I could elaborate, but I’m a wee bit tipsy so I’ll leave that for tomorrow. For procrastination over the packing thing. I’m moving in less than a week now, so I have to pack all my shit up.
Now that my pictures of tonight’s Moondata Labproject 36 have finished uploading, I’m gonna stop writing this blog. Cuz I just can’t tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

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So today I packed two boxes and stumbled upon about 40 floppy discs I had laying around that I had almost all my University papers backed up on. This got me thinking about this one final paper I wrote in my second year of University for my Archaeology Theory class. It was a very difficult class, but in Anthropology, I was queen of my field. Well, maybe not, but I was pretty good at it. So here, I got an A+. Now that I read it again, I realize that it wasn’t quite as glorious as I remembered it to be, and I could so kick the shit out of this paper now. The writing is not all that great in most parts and there are places where it is SO OBVIOUS that English is not my first language, but I guess that means I’ve learned something over the years and that my degree is worth a little more than I thought. Anyway, I think it’s a pretty interesting paper that talks about warfare. It can be a bit abstract if you haven’t read all the articles that I cite in there but I think anyone will get the general idea that I was trying to get across. I was trying to tie together the two distinct and almost opposite ideas: That warfare is a way for peoples to deal with distribution of resources and such; and that warfare is a ritual and culturally rich event that plays an important role in cultural entities. Why do we have wars? Where does it begin? …read on to get the answers.
I feel like today I could totally spend two years researching the subject and writing an entire thesis on the subject. I’m such a nerd, I know, but I find this shit fascinating. And there’s so much more to it than this silly paper, but here it is.

From a functionalist perspective (Dwight and LeBlanc, 2003), warfare begins when conflict is sparked by a lack of resources. This happens when the capacity of an area to support a certain amount of people is exceeded. At this point there is too many people for the amount of resources available to them, so they start fighting for the resources. However, by looking at it with a wider perspective it is obvious that wars are not only fought for resources but also for prestige and power. The point that will be demonstrated in this paper will be the contrast between the two (functionalist and cultural) and also to find out where prestige, which is cultural, fits in to this whole functionalist explanation. I will go deeper in the explanations of the first perspective (functionalism) and then move on to explain how culture, ritual wars, prestige and power fit in to this whole system. Furthermore, I will also try to explain what is war’s function in society, not only as a function to fulfill the needs of the people but also how it fits into the cultural context. Because archaeologists are not only interested in the system but also in the culture itself, I find it pertinent to make the link between the two.
In Read and LeBlanc’s article, they explain how there is a certain carrying capacity of the environment that allows humans to live peacefully and in abundance within this environment before the lack of resources becomes a problem. When this carrying capacity is at its full this creates a serious problem because there is too many people for the amount of resources provided by the environment. However, they also say that some societies have found ways to protect their interest before the situation becomes too dangerous. The population density has a direct effect on the environment which will backfire if the resources are not managed wisely or if the population density is to high for the environment to be able to support it. When I talk about the cost of living I am not only talking about the monetary cost (because not all societies have a monetary system) but also the energy cost. Both heads of households have to make sure their children are taken care of and that they have enough food to survive. They also have to plan their time in consequence of their children since childcare takes a lot of energy. As they explain, the cost of living rises as the resources become rarefied and the material impact begins to be felt. In order to protect their interest some people may decide to turn to some methods that will lower the fertility rates (inter-birth spacing) in order to have smaller families which will eventually decrease the population density and therefore regain a more comfortable state of living. However, in most cases, the demography has a natural tendency to constantly rise. So at one point or another the same problem arises where the resources are again rarefied. In situations where this occurs, a big group may decide to separate into smaller groups and disperse themselves in the area which will lower the population density. However, this may create a conflict with neighbouring groups that take advantage of the same catchment area, or simply creating conflicts by removing some of the resources from another group that are taking advantage of the same catchment. This does not necessarily involve violent confrontations or warfare, however there are consequences to competition over resources. One group may be replaced by another or they may simply be able to work out a way of coexisting with one another. However, the fact that the population density arises obviously has some serious repercussions on the environment of the area. In the case where the buffer is not large enough to support the increase of population, one of the two competing groups will be eliminated by the death of one or the other. This elimination would usually proceed in violent conflicts where one or the other would not be able to counter the aggression of the opposing group, or in other words, warfare will decrease the population density by itself. As in the case presented above describes, the expansion of one group creates a lack of resources for another part of the group (or for neighbouring groups) and this leads to conflict which might eventually end up as a war which will have an effect of equilibrium for the environmental system. As one could assume, in this case war has a function of balance upon the inhabitants of the environment in question. However, even though this is a very logical explanation for the birth of warfare, it lacks some important elements that an archaeologist would be looking for in his research, which would be the cultural elements.
As Whitehead explains in his article about tribes and states “Economic dependency, demographic factors, and the political history of inter-colonial rivalry are all parts of the explanation of the effects of (…) expansion on ethnic groups.”. Even though the context which this excerpt is taken from talks specifically about the effects of colonization, it still applies to the birth of warfare in the context that I’m approaching here. In that quote he explains that rivalry, demography and economy are all involved in the birth of violent confrontations that take place in warfare. This supports what I was demonstrating earlier. Conquest is also a consequence of the lack of resources in some regions. Some of the greatest conquerors in history came out of Europe. They sought to find riches in other countries and territories in order to support their own needs. Some of this took place by simple exchange but in most cases they just decided to take over new territories, use the people as slaves and the resources for their own conveniences. This often included bloody wars that would lead to the weakest party to resign for it was not able to counter the attacks of the Europeans and they would just have to give up control of their homeland. This often had disastrous effects on the landscape. One of the reasons why the environment was so devastated is because the Europeans introduced foreign species of fauna and flora which would create a new balance of the environment that the natural landscape would not be able to counter. Therefore, native landscape would be replaced by single land use (agriculture). This would also include massive deforestation that leads to faunal extinction. I think this occurs because culture has a lot to do with how the landscape is used. Every culture learns how to adapt to their homeland and to deal with its natural ecosystem balance. They live in their environment and are part of it. Usually, native cultures don’t have so much of a destructive effect on the ecosystem as immigrated ones do. The greatest problem with the European’s conquest is that their cosmology of the landscape did not fit the ecosystem they were conquering. Their ways and manners to use the landscape was not sensitive to the needs of the new ecosystem and this lead to great destruction. They did not only conquer places and people but also environments and ecosystems in order to fill their means and interests. This could be clearly demonstrated by using examples from the article called “Human Impact on the Wetlands of Belize, Central America”. In this article, the authors clearly demonstrate an example of adaptation of a culture with minor destruction levels and impacts on the ecosystem versus the European way of conquest and how the fact that they used the land at a low level and how the single land use for means of agriculture clearly had some very negative effects on the environment. However, the European conquest was not only an attempt to get more resources but also had a lot to do with prestige and power. They did not only want to use the new lands for more resources but also wanted to get all the gold and the jewels these people had, which clearly shows other interest for this type of warfare than only in the functional means. They wanted to come back to their homeland with not only new resources to show but also with a lot of prestige and more power. The conquerors often held a high status in society that followed their successful voyages overseas. I will get back to the subject of prestige and power at my conclusion, but for now let’s move on to the demonstration of another type of warfare.
Other groups made war a ritual that was often quite violent but sometimes choreographed or even implanted into the religion and the culture of the groups. For example, Kelekna, Webster, Chagnon, Redmond and Carneiro’s articles all talk about ritual warfare. These wars obviously, at one point, became more than just a fight for resources but also a part of the cultural practices of the group. I like to think that there is also a function for these wars but as opposed to Read and LeBlanc’s approach I’d like to think that they served a social function. And that social function wasn’t always to provide food or resources to the people but I think they provided a controlled way of competing with others in order to keep somewhat peaceful relationships between the inhabitants. They were rules like any others. In today’s society, if you commit a crime you go to jail. But in these societies, if you committed a crime you had to deal with the consequences of your action in other ways. The person who’s honour had been violated had to seek revenge on to the perpetrator. This is demonstrated in Ferguson’s article. It seems to me that in other cases they also serve functions similar to potlaches where exchange is done in an obligated way in order to keep the balance. They could also be subconscious ways to control the population density.
Warfare is sometimes so important to a culture that it is engraved into the morals of the religion or in the ways of life. For example, in Carneiro’s article, he speaks of a highly disciplined type of war that is extremely bloody and that result in many deaths. This, to me seems like both parties agree to losing members of their groups for the sake of tradition and I would also say that it plays a role in the control of the demography. It also has a lot to do with prestige, but I will get to that later. To me, this sounds like peaceful war…because it comes from an agreement that has been made by both parties to fight in cases where certain situations arise. The agreement is made in the cultural laws of these people. It’s sort of like the Mayas that Webster talked about. They fight for conquest and for prestige but they also fight because it is part of their culture and that’s how they live. It is a peaceful (even though it is quite violent) competition for land and resources that will help support the hierarchy, that has a role of support to the population it governs. So when a Mayan king won a war, he didn’t only win prestige and power but he might have gained resources like land and other utilities that are necessary to the survival of his people. To support this theory, I will use a modern example…Bush started a war with Irak because it has power over oil and oil is necessary to the survival of the Americans, so he was trying to take power over a necessary resource for his people. Even though he fought the war under a number of pretences that might have nothing to do with this, I believe that this was the subconscious function of that war.
Now to get back to conquest and prestige! When I was trying to fit together the function of the acquisition of resources and the prestige in the context of war, when I was organizing this paper I saw them as two completely different things. I could not understand that they could both be working for one single common function. I didn’t see why someone would go through a violent war simply to attain power because I thought that power didn’t have much to do with the access to resources. Well I was very, very wrong! At one point I realized that prestige also has a great function in the system of the war for resources. This is the graphic I came up with:
The star indicates the key element of this whole puzzle. And to me this graphic not only explains the role of prestige in warfare but also all the other roles that warfare play in society. Furthermore, I also think that prestige goes a lot further than that. Humans need security in their everyday lives therefore, the more material they have, the more prestige they have, and the more other people look up to them. People want prestige because along with prestige comes a lot of material security, and when you have a lot of material security you can lead a more comfortable life where you don’t have to work hard to make a living. Furthermore, I think this has a lot to do with laziness. Humans don’t really like working, and the less work they have to do and the better they feel. We want to spend the least amount of energy possible and prestige brings us that luxury. So at one point, if you have a lot of prestige, you don’t have to work to get your resources because you have accumulated wealth that allows you to have food and other human needs met at any time you want. So I believe that in the beginning, prestige all began with that one person that thought that it would be nice to have more security over their material life. And then that person was “richer” than others and would not have to worry about the well being of its family and this made him feel good and proud. And I think this is where the mentality of the want for luxurious lifestyles come from. Furthermore, the more prestige you have, and the more power you have over the people around you because they want what you have therefore, your security could help protect other people that are in need around you. Therefore, they will come and seek your guidance and leadership, and this is also where leaders come from…I think. I also think that humans need competition and warfare in their lifestyles. I think that it’s part of our animal instincts to fight, whether it be over resources or males fighting over a female. It happens everywhere in the animal kingdom, so I think that it’s part of the human lifestyle too. However, for some reason (of which I don’t know the answer), some humans decided to take it up to different levels which would include cultural levels, most of which remain unresolved. But I think that this is my best bet to finding the key to this mystery.

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So as part of my general accomplishments this week, I made my first BIG sale. I sold over 600$ worth of clothes to this nice lady. After she walks out, my boss tells me who she is. Her name is Claire Pimparé. For those of you who are French and of my generation, you may know her as Passe-Carreau (the one on the right). This lady is an icon of francophone children’s entertainment in Canada. All over the country and for over 20 years, children, the generation of people that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s watched the TV show “Passe-Partout” religiously. Personally, I remember refusing to ever go to bed without having watched my daily dose of Passe-Partout. While I was working at the Brûlerie, I served Passe-Montagne (the man in the middle of the next picture). And now, my first big customer at my new job is one of my childhood idols. Let me tell you that when she called the next morning because she LOVED her new jeans and JUST HAD to have another pair, I felt pretty giddy. I was talking on the phone with Passe-Carreau!!!! And she put me on a mission to find her more pants. I’m on a mission for Passe-Carreau. HA!
Anyway. That’s my new and exciting event for the week.

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So I’ve been working for the last six days. They’ve started me off pretty intensely at my new job. I kinda gave my body a pretty big jolt as I began going to work in the Mile-End on my bike for the first 4 mornings. It might’ve been a pretty ridiculous idea to think that I could handle it after all these months of non-biking. All my bike muscles have gone away and i’m hurting pretty bad right now. I really need a yoga class right now and have spent the past hour looking for one…like right now today, while I’m not working, but to no avail. What I really need is a real good massage.
Also, I think that my person who was going to take over my lease is not going to work out. She doesn’t have a Canadian co-signer so my landlords aren’t really going for it. So it looks like I’m going to have to find someone else. Please pass the word along. I’m signing my new lease on the perfect apartment today. wooo! I’m so excited.
Anyway, I don’t really have much else to say right now being that my life in the past few days have been all work and no play. So that’s it for today folks.

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