An Introduction to Interdimensional VIllainy

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The War Language

Tribal societies frequently engage in warfare that is dramatically different than modern warfare. This tribal or endemic warfare is highly ritualized and almost playful or sport-like. Fatalities are rare and injuries are significantly less common. These ritualized wars serve the purpose of allowing warriors to show their courage and allowing tribes to sort out minor disagreements without major loss of life. But Tribal societies do also engage in true warfare when necessary. 

Such conflict inevitably puts huge stresses on warriors, and tribal cultures have discovered that there are several factors that help reduce trauma from war. First, social sanction from the tribe helps warriors cope with their actions in war time. Second, purification rituals which ceremonially cleanse the warrior of their sins. Third, transformation into a warrior state that can be left behind through another transformation at the end of war time.

Having a separate language for warriors in war time, such as the 'clipped speech' of the (admittedly fictional) Klingon Military allows for a dramatic transformation on the part of the warrior. According to the Sapir-Wharf Hypothosis, what we are able think about and how we are able to think at all is mediated by the language in which we speak and think. By giving warriors a different language to communicate in, we create a different culture and with luck a different persona for the warrior to wear on the battlefield. With luck this persona will be one that can then be put aside when the battle is over.
 
There are other parts of this, such as purification rituals and transformation rituals and public support for warriors and their actions. And all of these are important. War is a traumatizing and demoralizing event. War can break warriors by the boatload, even for those who come safe home. And having that different language creates break between peace and war, warrior and enemy, and warrior and civilian.

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