Herbert presents many “facts” in the story, and I couldn’t tell if they were made up, pointed to a future’s understanding of reality, or it referred to something legit.
One such concept is looking for “war signs”. They go out of their way to point out different aspects of society that point to being “warlike”. One such is the existence of banners, as apparently there are no uses of banners aside from marching and signifying a side in a conflict.
Are there anthropological indicators to how warlike a society is at any given moment? Are there human societies that have not experienced war?