Warfare, Violence and Slavery in Prehistory

Warfare, Violence and Slavery in Prehistory PDF Author: Michael Parker Pearson
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Proceedings of a Prehistoric Society conference at Sheffield University

Warfare, Violence and Slavery in Prehistory

Warfare, Violence and Slavery in Prehistory PDF Author: Michael Parker Pearson
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Proceedings of a Prehistoric Society conference at Sheffield University

Prehistoric Warfare and Violence

Prehistoric Warfare and Violence PDF Author: Andrea Dolfini
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319788280
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
This is the first book to explore prehistoric warfare and violence by integrating qualitative research methods with quantitative, scientific techniques of analysis such as paleopathology, morphometry, wear analysis, and experimental archaeology. It investigates early warfare and violence from the standpoint of four broad interdisciplinary themes: skeletal markers of violence and weapon training; conflict in prehistoric rock-art; the material culture of conflict; and intergroup violence in archaeological discourse. The book has a wide-ranging chronological and geographic scope, from early Neolithic to late Iron Age and from Western Europe to East Asia. It includes world-renowned sites and artefact collections such as the Tollense Valley Bronze Age battlefield (Germany), the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Tanum (Sweden), and the British Museum collection of bronze weaponry from the late Shang period (China). Original case studies are presented in each section by a diverse international authorship. The study of warfare and violence in prehistoric and pre-literate societies has been at the forefront of archaeological debate since the publication of Keeley’s provocative monograph ‘War Before Civilization’ (Oxford 1996). The problem has been approached from a number of standpoints including anthropological and behavioural studies of interpersonal violence, osteological examinations of sharp lesions and blunt-force traumas, wear analysis of ancient weaponry, and field experiments with replica weapons and armour. This research, however, is often confined within the boundaries of the various disciplines and specialist fields. In particular, a gap can often be detected between the research approaches grounded in the humanities and social sciences and those based on the archaeological sciences. The consequence is that, to this day, the subject is dominated by a number of undemonstrated assumptions regarding the nature of warfare, combat, and violence in non-literate societies. Moreover, important methodological questions remain unanswered: can we securely distinguish between violence-related and accidental trauma on skeletal remains? To what extent can wear analysis shed light on long-forgotten fighting styles? Can we design meaningful combat tests based on historic martial arts? And can the study of rock-art unlock the social realities of prehistoric warfare? By breaking the mould of entrenched subject boundaries, this edited volume promotes interdisciplinary debate in the study of prehistoric warfare and violence by presenting a number of innovative approaches that integrate qualitative and quantitative methods of research and analysis.

War Before Civilization

War Before Civilization PDF Author: Lawrence H. Keeley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199880700
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past"). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world. He reveals, for instance, that prehistorical tactics favoring raids and ambushes, as opposed to formal battles, often yielded a high death-rate; that adult males falling into the hands of their enemies were almost universally killed; and that surprise raids seldom spared even women and children. Keeley cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world, including the discovery in South Dakota of a prehistoric mass grave containing the remains of over 500 scalped and mutilated men, women, and children (a slaughter that took place a century and a half before the arrival of Columbus). In addition, Keeley surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kinds of warfare and again finds little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, he examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples. Keeley is a seasoned writer and his book is packed with vivid, eye-opening details (for instance, that the homicide rate of prehistoric Illinois villagers may have exceeded that of the modern United States by some 70 times). But he also goes beyond grisly facts to address the larger moral and philosophical issues raised by his work. What are the causes of war? Are human beings inherently violent? How can we ensure peace in our own time? Challenging some of our most dearly held beliefs, Keeley's conclusions are bound to stir controversy.

War, Peace, and Human Nature

War, Peace, and Human Nature PDF Author: Douglas P. Fry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190232463
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
"The chapters in this book [posit] that humans clearly have the capacity to make war, but since war is absent in some cultures, it cannot be viewed as a human universal. And counter to frequent presumption, the actual archaeological record reveals the recent emergence of war. It does not typify the ancestral type of human society, the nomadic forager band, and contrary to widespread assumptions, there is little support for the idea that war is ancient or an evolved adaptation. Views of human nature as inherently warlike stem not from the facts but from cultural views embedded in Western thinking"--Amazon.com.

Slaves, Warfare, and Ideology in the Greek Historians

Slaves, Warfare, and Ideology in the Greek Historians PDF Author: Peter Hunt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521893909
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
A controversial interpretation of Greek military history.

Warfare in Prehistoric Britain

Warfare in Prehistoric Britain PDF Author: Julian Heath
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 144561992X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Warfare in Prehistoric Britain explores the dark shadow of war which has hung over humanity for centuries

Late Prehistory and Protohistory: Bronze Age and Iron Age (1. The Emergence of warrior societies and its economic, social and environmental consequences; 2. Aegean – Mediterranean imports and influences in the graves from continental Europe – Bronze and Iron Ages)

Late Prehistory and Protohistory: Bronze Age and Iron Age (1. The Emergence of warrior societies and its economic, social and environmental consequences; 2. Aegean – Mediterranean imports and influences in the graves from continental Europe – Bronze and Iron Ages) PDF Author: Fernando Coimbra
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784912980
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Proceedings of two sessions from the XVII UISPP World Congress, 2014: A3c The Emergence of warrior societies and its economic, social and environmental consequences and A16a Aegean – Mediterranean imports and influences in the graves from continental Europe – Bronze and Iron Ages.

Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers

Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers PDF Author: Mark W Allen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315415968
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
How did warfare originate? Was it human genetics? Social competition? The rise of complexity? Intensive study of the long-term hunter-gatherer past brings us closer to an answer. The original chapters in this volume examine cultural areas on five continents where there is archaeological, ethnographic, and historical evidence for hunter-gatherer conflict despite high degrees of mobility, small populations, and relatively egalitarian social structures. Their controversial conclusions will elicit interest among anthropologists, archaeologists, and those in conflict studies.

Warless Societies and the Origin of War

Warless Societies and the Origin of War PDF Author: Raymond Case Kelly
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472067381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
A concise study using archeological and ethnographic evidence to refute current theories about the origin of war

Emergent Warfare in Our Evolutionary Past

Emergent Warfare in Our Evolutionary Past PDF Author: Nam C Kim
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351365770
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Why do we fight? Have we always been fighting one another? This book examines the origins and development of human forms of organized violence from an anthropological and archaeological perspective. Kim and Kissel argue that human warfare is qualitatively different from forms of lethal, intergroup violence seen elsewhere in the natural world, and that its emergence is intimately connected to how humans evolved and to the emergence of human nature itself.