Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
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3 In addition certain physical defects were considered debilitating. For example, in Afghan politics losers were often blinded instead of killed because this rendered them ineligible to rule and removed them from the game.
4 Except for Mongol Empire's Chinggis Khan, who, not understanding the ritual nature of such challenges, had the populations of rebellious cities exterminated so that there would be no cities to rebel in the future.
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33 The closest analogy of this pre-modern process is found today during hostile takeovers by multi-national corporations. As factory workers and paper pushers continue their usual patterns of work, rival teams of mercenary lawyers waving proxy votes engage in furious battle to gain control of the target corporation's assets. Upon victory the winning side purges losing corporate board members and executives, and installs its own. Nothing changes on the factory floor during this process, and workers ordinarily are not expected to take part in the struggle or ratify its outcome despite the fact that they have as much or more to lose or gain from the new owners' policies than other players.