Blood Rites, By Barbara Ehrenreich
From prey to predator – why we wage war
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Much writing about war makes the obvious points that it is bad, sad, kills people, etc.
Barbara Ehrenreich goes beyond such truisms to propose a radical new theory of why humans (not exclusively men) are so keen to wage war: it arouses a kind of religious ecstasy, in non-combatants as well as soldiers; it has its rituals, its hymns, its myths, its sacred sites, its cult of sacrifice. But why do we "sacralise" war?
Ehrenreich's answer delves back into prehistory: once a prey species, we learned to defend ourselves by banding together and fighting off predators. This common experience has shaped all human societies since. Part anthropology, part sociology, part history, this is an original, eye-opening and highly persuasive account.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments