Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers [Paperback]

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.

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.

“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.”

—Choice Magazine

Mark W. Allen is Professor of Anthropology at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. He has been studying the anthropology of warfare since 1988 when he began dissertationl³á