Yeah, I think so. Contrary to what people think, revenge usually doesn't cycle. Your brother kills my uncle. I kill your brother.
That's usually the end of it. When you come to kill me, you complain that I killed your brother, I reply that he killed my uncle, and you would usually say "ok, yeah, I guess that's fair. How about you pay me some money and we'll call it a day?" I'm happy to pay because I got something I value - vengeance for my uncle.
Obviously, this bears no relation to how things are done in modern, centralised societies, and I'm going to need some evidence that it's the standard way of doing things for people in general. We do know of family feuds and vendettas that have continued for decades or even centuries, historically. Wikipedia's article on Feuds claims:
quote:
Vendetta is still practiced in some areas in France (especially Corsica), Italy (especially Sicily, Sardinia, Campania, Calabria, Apulia and other areas of Southern Italy),[12] in Mani and Crete (Greece),[13][14] among Kurdish clans in Iraq and Turkey,[15][16][17] in northern Albania, among Pashtuns in Afghanistan,[18] among Serb tribes in Montenegro,[19] Somali clans,[20] among the Berbers of Algeria,[21] over land in Nigeria,[22] in India, between rival tribes in the north-east Indian state of Assam,[23] among rival clans in China[24] and Philippines,[25] among the Arab Bedouins and Arab tribes inhabiting the mountains of Yemen and between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq,[26] in southern Ethiopia,[27][28] among the highland tribes of New Guinea,[29] in Svaneti, in the mountainous areas of Dagestan, many northern areas of Georgia and Azerbaijan, a number of republics of the northern Caucasus and essentially among Chechen teips where those seeking retribution do not accept or respect the local law enforcement authority. Vendettas are generally abetted by a perceived or actual indifference on the part of local law enforcement.[citation needed]
In rural Yemen, state authority is weak, and disputes between tribes are frequently solved through violence.[30]
In Albania, the blood feud has returned in rural areas after more than 40 years of being abolished by Albanian communists led by Enver Hoxha. More than 5,500 Albanian families are currently engaged in blood feuds. There are now more than 20,000 men and boys who live under an ever-present death sentence because of blood feuds. Since 1992, at least 10,000 Albanians have been killed due to blood feuds.[31]
I haven't had the time to go to all these sources to find details, but I had a brief look into the accounts of 'ndo' feuds in the Phillipines, where there are hundreds still ongoing, despite conflict-resolution work which includes, in some cases, the paying of blood money.
Well, but again, this emerges as the best strategy in the iterative Prisoner's Dilemma.
That something works as the best strategy in an idealised game-theory situation, with very few players, might mean it would be the best strategy in a small, close-knit group of hunter-gatherers. It doesn't mean you can extrapolate that it works in an industrialised society of millions.
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