III.2 The Arena Games in the Roman Empire

Abstract

The main attractiveness of the games was lying in their horrific character. The pleasure of the Romans into this kind of sports was tremendously brutal and perverse (Grant 1982:91, transl. by G. O.). Roman arena games essentially consisted of gladiator fights on life or death, cruel executions of delinquents, and chases with wild animals. Millions of humans and millions of animals were killed in the arenas during the Imperial period. This article shows that the mentioned elements of the games are found in most pre-modern societies around the globe since the oldest times, both in ancient civilizations and tribal societies. The rise of animal protection, the abolishment of duel cultures and sadistic punishment systems belong to cultural transformations that arise as late as the era of enlightenment and modernization. It can be shown that psychic-cognitive structures account for the ubiquity of the cruel practices in pre-modern societies and for their abolishment during the processes of modernization. Cross-cultural psychology is able to link these historical cognitive structures and transformations to empirical results detected among different contemporary cultures around the globe in the past 70 years.

Psychological Development, Violence, and the Pacification Trend in World History

“…Primitive social institutions and environments allow or make it possible that the human´s psyche has not to develop beyond lower, childish stages, whereas modern, complex social networks, relations, institutions, and states foster or force the people to climb on higher stages and to become more civilized and self-controlled. I would like to say already here that modern approaches are able to confirm this idea and to deepen and differentiate it enormously (Oesterdiekhoff 2012a(Oesterdiekhoff , 2013a(Oesterdiekhoff , 2009a(Oesterdiekhoff , 2011.…”

The Origins of the World Wars I and II The Contribution of the Cognitive-Developmental Approach To the Explanation of the 20th century’s Catastrophe

“…They participated into the 20 th century gains in case they lived in societies which stood under modernization pressure. Only in archaic and traditional social milieus people have conserved their lower intelligence scores partially by today as they had done right across the whole history of humankind (Flynn, 2007;Oesterdiekhoff, 2009aOesterdiekhoff, , 2012bOesterdiekhoff, , 2013aRindermann, 2008;Irvine & Berry, 1988).…”

“…Modern culture, school attendance, job qualifications, etc., forces and attracts people to develop beyond the childish stages, while the smaller incentives of premodern cultures cause the "arrested development" (Dasen & Berry, 1974;Dasen, 1977;Hallpike, 1979;Luria, 1982;Mogdil & Mogdil, 1976, vol. 8;Piaget, 1974;Oesterdiekhoff, 2009aOesterdiekhoff, , 2011Oesterdiekhoff, , 2012aOesterdiekhoff, , b, 2013a. Obviously, the psychometric and the developmental data match and evidence each other.…”

“…Violence penetrated intra-and international social relations, manifesting in duels, gender relations, child upbringing, class conflicts, and in wars between nations or cities (Pinker, 2011, pp. 136, 252, 350, 372, 390;Elias, 1976;Oesterdiekhoff, 2000Oesterdiekhoff, , 2009bOesterdiekhoff, , 2011Oesterdiekhoff, , 2012a. The era of colonization and imperialism are parts of this history of violence and war.…”

The Role of Developmental Psychology to Understanding History, Culture and Social Change

“…This example teaches us about the size and the depth of the psychological distance between ancient and modern man. Both types differ not only in their cognitive structures but in their psyche and personality generally (Oesterdiekhoff, 2009c;2011;2013a;2012a).…”