War Shillelagh

[Berkley]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... the shillelagh seems very similar to the 'knobkerry' of Zulu and associated tribes in South Africa. While in most cultures, the familiar 'club' used from mans earliest times was supplanted by many other weapon forms, but in these, it developed into these forms and prevailed.

Sincere apologies for the injection of what may seem a political statement, but it struck me that in both cases the seemingly anachronistic spread of a neolithic weapon in relatively recent times appears to have a causal relationship to the strict arms control policies of the colonial power (England). One cannot help but muse whether that same power's current domestic arms control policies with respect to edged weapons may not lead to a similar proliferation of anachronistic arms. (2010 London Times headline: "Growing incidence of cudgel crime alarms authorities"
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