War Is Within

War is within.

"People must recognize the defects of the old invention, and someone must make a new one."

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world in which war is nonexistent? One in which mankind can live peacefully, absent of bloodshed, losing loved ones, and scarring experiences? For years, war has been a universal way of settling disputes between two groups of people. In Margaret Mead's essay, she argues that war is an invention and since it is, over time something else will be invented to take the place of war. She uses exaggerated false evidence to support this unrealistic view. Contrary to Margaret Mead's opinion, there is no outlet large enough that satisfies the aggression of man to replace the art of warfare.

In Warfare: An Invention- Not a Biological Necessity, Mead argues that societies exist where no warfare is used, one of these societies that she mentioned being the Eskimos. That is, in fact, false. Ernest S. Burch Jr., a researcher who documented significant events of Alaska's past, did extensive research in Eskimo history that proved warfare existed in as early as 1840. Burch spent thirty years in Alaska tracing the historical events, and looking for evidence that either proved or disproved the eskimo's involvement in war. While the rest of the world, including Mead, believed the asinine stereotype that Eskimos lacked war in their society, Burch searched the land firsthand, and was able to gather an astonishing amount of evidence that contradicted this stereotype . While Margaret Mead claimed that "The idea of warfare is lacking" in the culture of Eskimos, their different tribes were actually engaged in battles between each other. Their history existed orally, which was partly the reason why most people believed they didn't participate in wars. The evidence of fighting in the Eskimo culture is, however, very evident. Almost all the eskimos are educated orally about their past, and in their stories all prove one thing; throughout many different instances, Eskimo tribes have fought against each other