War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America [Paperback]

Archaeologists, ethnohistorians, osteologists, and cultural anthropologists have only recently begun to address seriously the issue of Native American war and peace in the eastern United States. New methods for identifying prehistoric cooperation and conflict in the archaeological record are now helping to advance our knowledge of their existence and importance. Focusing on four major issues in prehistoric warfare studies-settlement patterns, skeletal trauma, weaponry, and iconography-David H. Dye presents a new interpretation of ancient war and peace east of the Mississippi. He considers evidence for raiding and more organized forms of warfare, accounts of native warfare witnessed by sixteenth-century Europeans, and the various causes of warfare, such as revenge, competition for resources, and ideology.War Paths, Peace Pathsoffers an innovative analysis of cooperation and conflict in the prehistoric eastern United States.David H. Dyeis associate professor of archaeology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Memphis.

A very informative text on the evolution of warfare in eastern North America. Recommended. Choice Reviews

War Paths, Peace Pathsskillfully traces all three trends in Native culture as violence and peace evolved over the millennia. American Archaeology

Chapter 1. Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America
Chapter 2. Archaeology and the Study of Violence and Cooperation
Sidebar: The Origin of War - Is War Making Integral to Our Ancestry?
Chapter 3. Family-Level Foragers and the Resolution of Homicides
Sidebar: Paleoindian Foragers and Pleistocene Extinctions
Chapter 4. Complex Hunter-Gatherers and the Origin of Feuding
Sidebar: The Poverty Point Site and Complex Hunter-Gatherers
Chapter 5. The Rise of Agriculture and the Elaboration of Feuding
Sidebar: Shamans, Warriors, and Diplomats
Chapter 6. Cooperation and Conflict in Late Woodland Socil3J