Lethal Treachery and the Imbalance of Power in Warfare and Feuding

Abstract

Lethal treachery is distinguished by the necessity of deceptively peaceful social interaction between attacker and victim immediately prior to an assault. Aggressors may make deliberate plans to attack opponents during peacemaking ceremonies or fall opportunistically upon noncombatants during seemingly friendly encounters. As with other forms of ambush, the tactic increases the vulnerability of victims while reducing that of the attackers. Ethnographic data from a cross-cultural survey show that lethal treachery has been an occasional, though very successful, tactic in armed conflicts but has been a generally overlooked aspect of warfare and feuding. Its consistency with Wrangham's problematical imbalance-of-power hypothesis is only apparent and is assessed with regard to conventional animal conflict models.