Not being an expert in anthropology or archaeology, I nevertheless offer a critique of this book because it raises important political questions for libertarian communists, particularly regarding the role of the state and war. This book discusses conflicts within non-state societies. Its author is a French Marxist anthropologist with several rare qualities: he is a materialist and highly critical of postmodernist currents, he is always cautious and develops his arguments with rigorous rationality, and finally, he is an excellent popularizer of science. His other works and his blog are very informative on debates in contemporary social anthropology, including several arguments against certain postmodernist feminist currents (1).
War
"Casus belli" shows that conflicts were widespread in the non-state societies observed by Westerners, and that this likely already existed in the Paleolithic era. From this, C. Darmangeat attempts to categorize these conflicts because the commonly used term "war" is too vague. Not all bloody confrontations are wars, even if the latter remains the dominant form of such conflict today. War is characterized by a confrontation that seeks to impose its objectives on the adversary through violence. Other forms of conflict existed in stateless societies, sometimes very violent and involving significant atrocities, without being wars. The book provides a framework for these different types of conflict.
The naive materialist reasoning is to consider that these conflicts originated from material interests (resources, territories, women, etc.). However, as P. Clastres ("Archaeology of Violence") argues, these reasons do not appear to be essential. Conflicts between non-state communities at that time seemed primarily driven by what could be called political motives: enabling a human group to secure its identity, cohesion, and internal solidarity.
His work shows that war permeates different social forms (from stateless societies to capitalism) and that it can be defined as such when a confrontation aims to reduce the adversary to its own imperatives. The author rightly explains that it is naive to believe that future conflicts could be avoided today by officially peaceful leaders. The author emphasizes that recognizing that war has always existed is not the same as attributing it to human nature, just as acknowledging that the oppression of women has always existed does not mean that it is inevitable.
The Role of the State
A state holds a monopoly on violence and prohibits individual or collective violent actions independent of its will. The state has thus eliminated virtually all other forms of conflict other than war. In stateless societies, no institution could prevent a person from acting as they saw fit (revenge, etc.). Consequently, C. Darmangeat posits that, proportionally, the homicide rate was much higher in non-state societies than in state societies. From this, to considering the state necessary... C. Darmangeat, as a Marxist, doesn't go that far but clearly leaves the question open: "The state has pacified daily social relations." And this deserves a brief discussion, even though the author adds, "It would be quite naive to conclude that the state has unilaterally lowered the level of physical violence in society."
At first glance, it is difficult to make the comparison the author makes ("in relative terms,[wars prove to be]just as deadly as ours") because it compares a few dozen deaths to millions. Moreover, the state largely deprives individuals of autonomy and imposes an extremely brutal social framework, both physically and psychologically. Above all, "pacification" is achieved through its armed forces against all forms of dissent, even resorting to bloody repression (as in Iran); a situation impossible in non-state societies. Finally, the book shows that conflict resolution could involve solutions other than homicide, even in non-state societies.
And what about tomorrow?
The author is a Marxist and therefore opposed to the current social order; however, the "militant" dimension appears only sporadically. Regarding war (and the xenophobia that exists even in non-state societies), as the author states, "The human species is characterized by its unparalleled capacity for cultural evolution... The fact that war is a recent or ancient phenomenon says absolutely nothing about the possibility of eradicating it. The real question is: what factors perpetuate it today, are these factors likely to disappear, and if so, with what consequences?" In fact, war "stems directly from socio-economic fragmentation." Yet, humans have a "capacity to collectively forge lasting bonds of cooperation." Universalism exists in human thought today.
The author is betting on the development of technology to transform current social structures and bring about a unified world. For us too, given the plasticity of social structures and cultural forms in human societies, nothing prevents us from considering that a future stateless society, built on the ruins of the current world, could exist without war or widespread violent conflict. However, the author has a somewhat mechanistic view, as technological development is not always positive for humanity, especially today. A form of global cooperation can develop based on current technological means; the problem is far more political than technical today.
Conclusion
This work is very informative and dispels all the fantasies of a primitivist ideal: "The social structure of these groups, particularly their economic egalitarianism, did not protect them from potentially hostile external relations." The approach is rigorous and very instructive regarding errors in scientific analysis in anthropology and archaeology. As the author states: "The scientific method requires accepting the conclusions drawn from the facts, even if these are initially unpleasant." Beyond that, this book provides an analytical framework for understanding the form and causes of violent conflicts. It allows for a better understanding of the present and certain pitfalls to avoid for a future of emancipation.
RV
1. See the website "La Hutte des Classes" and its publications "Primitive Communism Is No Longer What It Used to Be: The Origins of Women's Oppression"; "The Origins of Gender"; "Conversation on the Birth of Inequality."
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4632
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Link: (en) France, OCL CA #357 - Book review: Casus Belli, War Before the State - Christophe Darmangeat, La Découverte, 2025 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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