War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties.
Mural of War (1896), by Gari Melchers
The Egyptian siege of Dapur in the 13th century BCE, from Ramesseum, Thebes.
Japanese samurai attacking a Mongol ship, 13th century
Finnish soldiers during the Winter War.
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members.
Ant social ethology: Ants are eusocial insects. The social group enables its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis.
José Rizal, a theorist of colonial societies
San people in Botswana start a fire by hand.
Maasai men perform adumu, the traditional jumping dance.
