Overview

In tribal societies engaging in endemic warfare, warriors often form a caste or class of their own. In feudalism, the vassals essentially form a military or warrior class, even if in actual warfare, peasants may be called to fight as well. In some societies, warfare may be so central that the entire people (or, more often large parts of the male population) may be considered warriors, for example in the Iron Age Germanic tribes or the Medieval Rajputs.

Professional warriors are people who are paid money for engaging in military campaigns and fall into one of two categories: Soldiers, when fighting on behalf of their own state; or mercenaries, when offering their services commercially and unrelated to their own nationality. The classification of somebody who is involved in acts of violence may be a matter of perspective, and there may be disagreement whether a given person is a hooligan, gangster, terrorist, rebel, freedom fighter, mercenary or a soldier.

Warrior code

In many societies in which a specialized warrior class exists, specific codes of conduct (ethical codes) are instituted in order to ensure that the warrior class is not corrupted or otherwise dangerous to the rest of society. Warrior codes often have common features and usually value honour in the forms of faith, loyalty and courage. Examples include the medieval knights' code of chivalry, the Kshatriya code of Dharma in India or Japan's samurai class which uses a warrior code known as Bushido (The Way Of The Warrior) and xiá in China. See also noblesse oblige.

Warriors' honor is dependent on following the code. Common virtues in warrior code are mercy, courage and loyalty.

Warrior cultures

A warrior culture is a culture that heavily emphasizes battle and war and greatly prizes feats of arms. Warrior cultures often incorporate a cult of personality around military leaders, are ruled by an elite warrior class, and have a warfare based economy. Examples of societies in history that could be designated as warrior cultures include:

• Albanians
• Apache
• Assyrians
• Ancient Macedonians
• Afghan or Pashtoon
• Anglo-Saxons
• Amazons
• Frisians under Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijard Jelckama
• Aztecs
• Barbarian
• Bastarnae
• Caribs
• Celts
• Channar
• Cheyenne Dog Soldiers
• Chinese during the Spring and Autumn Period
• Cossack
• Crimean Tatars
• Dani people
• Franks
• Goths
• Greeks
• Gurkha
• Haida
• Huns under Attila
• Illyrians
• Iroquois
• Jurchen
• Kallar
• of Nepal
• Kshatriyas of India
• Maratha from Maharashtra
• Mukkulathors
• Nairs from Kerala, India
• Rajput
• Rajus
• Telaga from India
• Kapu from South ,India
• Lombards
• Mapuche
• Maori
• Maratha clan system
• Masai
• Matabele
• Mongols under Genghis Khan
• Nadars
• Nayudu from Andhra Pradesh, India
• Naicker from Tamil Nadu, India
• Nihangs or Sikhs
• Ninjas from Feudal Japan
• Persians
• Pandya from Tamil Nadu, India
• Romans
• Samoans
• Scythians
• Scottish Canadians
• Sambal people of the Philippines
• Samurai from Japan
• Sioux
• Somalis
• Sparta
• Thebes with the rise of the Sacred Band
• Tuareg
• Turks
• Velama from Andhra Pradesh, India
• Viking
• Yanomami
• The Zulu under Shaka