Why then did man and how then did man come to fight in bands from the initial state of one-on-one fighting? First, we need to explore the reasons why man need and want to engage in Banded fighting? There are two prime reasons. Firstly, it is the need to improve one's state of relative strength. Man in banded fighting are stronger than any individual. Co-operation accords a group of man greater strength which translates into many resultant benefits such as the increase in their chances for individual survivability and their success rates (just to name two). Secondly, man come together in fight in bands because of a commonality in interests which springs forth from social units. In tribes, ancient man may have been unrelated in blood but only in territory and they would still logically combine their efforts to achieve their common goal of fighting to repulse an invader for example. The other social unit of the family makes for easier explanation since all species of animals fight to protect and ensure the success of their genetic line.Now we move onto the differentiating conditions which exist in Banded fighting as unique and distinct from Individual fighting. The first such condition is Leadership. As social psychologists rightfully observe and assert, even between two people, a system of social dominance is established. Leadership among man who unite to fight on the same side can take the form of formal or informal. As Webster provides, it would also be buttressed by the charismatic appeal of the leader or the legal-rational authority of the leader. Leadership is what transforms a mass of weapon-wielding men into a unit. Leadership also brings into the group of man functional organization and hierarchies.
A second differentiating condition would be ideology which operates as a tool for unification and offers direction and motivation to the men. This is highly important and effective since it is beyond the material and operates on the emotive and basal instincts of men. The banded fighting unit with ideology can be better counted on to "bear their swords in the cold".
Sometimes individuals do fight with the conviction of ideologies, you may argue. And I rightfully agree. However, only in a banded fighting unit can ideology truly flourish. This is largely due to the effects of the next differentiating condition which is group-think which reinforces self-right and in turn may blur judgment and increase risk-taking. Another effect of group-think is to heighten "Other-ing" which strengthens group culture. Group-culture is crucial to the banded fighting unit as it unites them mentally and develops exclusive kinship within the unit in the form of a symbolic code of arms and a unit name for example.
I shall move onto the next differentiating condition which is closely related. As man come together to fight in banded units, they come to recognize certain values such as valor, self-sacrifice, cowardice and camaraderie for example. This is the appearance of concepts which are specific to banded fighting.They praise positive values and mock negative ones. Symbolic acknowledgment of positive values displayed in the heat of battle heightens the social hierarchy within the group and also gives birth to the "Warrior's Vanity" where a warrior seeks to win the admiration of his fellow warriors by his display of positive values. There is then the motivation to outdo each other and in turn win their fellow warriors' admiration which actually serves to improve the overall fighting ability of the unit.
The last differentiating condition is the development of group tactics. The need for close-order fighting tactics develops out of a need to kill the enemy without killing your own. Tactics also arises out of man's ability to adapt and observe. Man is a creature of observation and is able to learn from mistakes. Defeat prompts tactical response. Group Tactics (or rather , developing Group tactics) then improve the success rate of a banded fighting unit.
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