Fortress Fascination
Modern man’s fascination with fortresses may be traced all the way back to the primordial men. John Maxcy Zane, a lawyer-philosopher and distinguished member of the Chicago Bar, traced man’s tendency to mark his territory when he wrote in his illuminating book
The Story of Law (1927) that at the dawn of the Glacial Ages when tribal property first began, a tribe would locate itself close to the hunting ground for food, and that would be the start of the desire to keep that ground. Any encroachment by another tribe would be repelled by force, and thus every tribe would be hostile to every other tribe. Man is by nature a defensive animal.
Erich Fromm, the German psychoanalyst and social philosopher, wrote in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973) that man tends to be motivated by his phylogenetic ally prepared tendency for defensive aggression when his life, health, freedom, or property are threatened. To survive in a highly competitive society, man became transfixed with fortifications.
Over the ages, man developed a passion to secure his territory from his enemies. Members of the ruling class have traditionally used castles as symbols of their affluence, In troubled times however they bolstered the defenses of their residencies against aggression, which led to the construction of mighty castles like the Tower of London and the Krak des Chevahers. Some of the rulers of Spain erected garrison forts (alcazabas) and tower keeps (torTes del homenaje) for protection and as bases for their soldiers
Tags: People