Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers

by Mark W Allen (Editor), Terry L Jones (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611329391
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/01/2014
Pages:	391
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mark W Allen, Terry L Jones

Table of Contents

Part 1 A Neglected Anthropology: Hunter-Gatherer Violence and Warfare; Chapter 1 Hunter-Gatherer Conflict: The Last Bastion of the Pacified Past?, Mark W. Allen; Chapter 2 Forager Warfare and Our Evolutionary Past, Steven A. LeBlanc; Part 2 Violence and Warfare among Mobile Foragers; Chapter 3 Violence and Warfare in the European Mesolithic and Paleolithic, Virginia Hutton Estabrook; Chapter 4 Wild-Type Colonizers and High Levels of Violence among Paleoamericans, James C. Chatters; Chapter 5 Hunter-Gatherer Violence and Warfare in Australia, Mark W. Allen; Chapter 6 Conflict and Territoriality in Aboriginal Australia: Evidence fromConflict and Interpersonal Violence in Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Populations from Southern South America, Florencia Gordón; Chapter 8 Warfare and Expansion: An Ethnohistoric Perspective on the Numic Spread, Mark Q. Sutton; Chapter 9 Wait and Parry: Archaeological Evidence for Hunter-Gatherer Defensive Behavior in the Interior Northwest, Kenneth C. Reid; Chapter 10 Scales of Violence across the North American Arctic, John Darwent, Christyann M. Darwent; Chapter 11 The Spectre of Conflict on Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico, Matthew R. Des Lauriers; Part 3 Violence and Warfare among Semisedentary Hunter-Gatherers; Chapter 12 Foragers and War in Contact-Era New Guinea, Paul (Jim) Roscoe; Chapter 13 Middle and Late Archaic Trophy Taking in Indiana, Christopher W. Schmidt, Amber E. Osterholt; Chapter 14 TheArchaic Violence in Western North America: TheStable Isotope Perspectives on Hunter-Gatherer Violence: Who's Fighting Whom?, Jelmer W. Eerkens, Eric J. Bartelink, Karen S. Gardner, Traci L. Carlson; Chapter 17 The Technology of Violence and Cultural Evolution in the Santa Barbara Channel Region, James M. Brill; Chapter 18 Updating the Warrior Cache: Timing the Evidence for Warfare at Prince Rupert Harbour, Jerome S. Cybulski; Part 4 Synthesis and Conclusion; Chapter 19 The Prehistory of Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers, Terry L. Jones, Mark W. Allen;

Editorial Reviews

*Outstanding Academic Title of 2015*

"In a formidable departure from the status quo, Allen and Jones are to be applauded for assembling these 2013 conference papers featuring cutting-edge scholarship by an impressive cadre of interdisciplinary scholars. The volume's significance cannot be overstated, particularly given that contemporary culture wars (centered on the pacification of the human past) have had an inordinate impact on the study of indigenous conflict and its consequences. The 19 chapters and 26 contributors in this veritable tour de force carry the day by way of their integration of state-of-the-art approaches for assessing ethnicity, sexual selection, carrying capacity, climate, demography, and the archaeological and forensic evidence required to effectively evaluate and/or validate evidence for the long chronology of warfare in hunter-gatherer populations. Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries."

-R. G. Mendoza, California State University, Monterey Bay, CHOICE Review

From the Publisher