The Mundaneness of Warriorhood and the Warrior Narrative

The socialization process of the youth as warriors within communities is crucial in the construction of warriorhood and the subsequent social grouping of these individuals. However, most of these processes are tied to the everyday activities in the community, such as hunting, herding, scouting, inter-community feuds, and many other activities that serve as a doorway into warriorhood. These are often entangled with ideas of manhood, a sense of belonging, as well as events that push a community into conflict, or the threat of it. The point where these activities converge, and warriorhood is being moulded, are context-specific. However certain overarching principles emerge from archaeological, historical, and ethnographic sources. Notably, social groups serve as hubs for the construction, perpetuation, and legitimization of warrior identities and the socialization of individuals into violence. This paper will look at these mechanisms in the context of the Archaic Period in Macedonia, and will utilize historical texts on the matter, as well as studies carried out on warriors and weaponry in the area; in addition, it will bring forward comparisons with ethnographic studies on the subject, as well as archaeological studies conducted on northern and central European warriorhood. These comparisons are expected to shed to light certain similarities in the practice of warriorhood, as well as to point out important context-driven particularities that can help in our understanding of warriorhood, and the socialization of warriors.