The State: Its History and Development Viewed SociologicallyOppenheimer, Franz
History
The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically
Oppenheimer, Franz
State, The
For all these reasons, primitive peasants are totally lacking in that
warlike desire to take the offensive which is the distinguishing mark
of hunters and herdsmen: war can not better their condition. And this
peaceable attitude is strengthened by the fact that the occupation of
the peasant does not make him an efficient warrior. It is true his
muscles are strong and he has powers of endurance, but he is sluggish
of movement and slow to come to a determination, while huntsmen and
nomads by their methods of living develop speed of motion and swiftness
of action. For this reason, the primitive peasant is usually of a more
gentle disposition than they.[B]
[B] This psychological contradiction, though often expressly stated, is
not the absolute rule, Grosse, _Forms of the Family_, says (page 137):
“Some historians of civilization place the peasant in opposition to the
warlike nomads, claiming that the peasants are peace-loving peoples. In
fact one can not state that their economic life leads them to wars, or
educates them for it, as can be said of stock raisers. Nevertheless,
one finds within the scope of this form of cultivation a mass of the
most warlike and cruel peoples to be found anywhere. The wild cannibals
of the Bismarck archipelago, the blood-lusting Vitians, the butchers of
men of Dahome and Ashanti--they all cultivate the ‘peaceable’ acres;
and if other peasants are not quite as bad, it seems that the kindly
disposition of the vast mass appears to be, at least, questionable.”
To sum up: within the economic and social conditions of the peasant
districts, one finds no differentiation working for the higher forms
of integration. There exists neither the impulse nor the possibility
for the warlike subjection of neighbors. No “State” can therefore
arise; and, as a matter of fact, none ever has arisen from such social
conditions. Had there been no impulse from without, from groups of men
nourished in a different manner, the primitive grubber would never have
discovered the State.
(c) PEOPLES PRECEDING THE STATE: HERDSMEN AND VIKINGS
Herdsmen, on the contrary, even though isolated, have developed a whole
series of the elements of statehood; and in the tribes which have
progressed further, they have developed this in its totality, with the
single exception of the last point of identification which completes
the state in its modern sense, that is to say, with exception only of
the definitive occupation of a circumscribed territory.
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