Erratic Retaliation

1. Anthropomorphism: an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics.

When Ishmael talks about this in the chapter, I think he is talking about how humans always interpret what animals do in the human sense not only because we are used to seeing the kind of behavior, but subconsciously we are assuming what they are doing is something a human would do because the human way is the “right” way. Just like in the consecutive lines after the mention of this word, Ishmael talks about animals and territories. Animals have no want for territory, nor do they need it. We just think that animals are claiming land for themselves because that is what humans do. Really though, the animals are just trying to survive, and taking land that has the resources to sustain the animals.

2.
a. I think erratic retaliation is a fancy way of saying “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” In the case of the Cawks, this means that if one tribe starts to irk another tribe, the tribe being irked will try and bother the other tribe, so that they can be even.

b. Erratic Retaliation is a peacekeeping method because it forces the peaceful Cawk tribes to defend themselves, instead of just being annihilated by other more aggressive Cawk tribes. Basically, it forces Cawk tribes to defend themselves when others attack them, keeping any tribes from just being wiped out because they chose to lay down and die.

c. Cawks don’t annihilate one another because that would be useless. Going back to the example of the white-footed mouse, if the white-footed mice tried to kill themselves, that would not contribute to the gene pool. But if the white-footed mice kill other pups, than that makes it more likely for one white-footed mouse family to contribute their genes to a gene pool. To refine what I am saying, the Cawks don’t kill themselves because that would not help them advance.