Endemic warfare is the state of continual, low-threshold warfare in a tribal warrior society. Endemic warfare is often highly ritualized to minimise fatalities, and plays an important function in assisting the formation of a social structure among the tribes' males by "proving themselves in battle". Typical activities associated with endemic warfare are cattle raids and abduction of women. For other uses of War, see War (disambiguation). ... Tribal refers to a culture or society based on tribes or clans. ... A warrior is a person habitually engaged in war and/or skilled in the waging of war. ... Cattle rustling or cattle raiding is the act of stealing livestock. ... Look up abduction in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In logic, abduction is a method of reasoning; see abductive reasoning. ...

It is unclear why some tribal societies (such as the Germanic tribes, the Yuezhi or the Maori) evolve traditions of endemic warfare while in others (such as the Kalahari Bushmen), warfare is practically absent. The term Germanic tribes (or Teutonic tribes) applies to the ancient Germanic peoples of Europe. ... The migrations of the Yuezhi through Central Asia, from around 176 to 30 BCE. Yuezhi (Chinese:月氏, also 月支, Wade-Giles: Yüeh-Chih) or Da Yuezhi (Chinese:大月氏, also 大月支, Great Yuezhi) is the Chinese name for an ancient Central Asian people. ... Te Puni, Māori Chief Māori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. ... The Kalahari Desert is a large, arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa that covers about 500,000 km². It covers 70% of Botswana, and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. ... The Bushmen (also known as Khwe Khoe, Basarwa, or San) peoples of South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, who live in the Kalahari, are part of the Khoisan group and are related to the Khoikhoi. ...

See also

• Prehistoric warfare