War before civilization
"For the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, and unimportant. Lawrence Keeley's ... [book] offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notions that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization ... Building on ... archeological and historical research and offering ... [a] comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to…
Read More ↓Title Statements
- Full title :War before civilization / Lawrence H. Keeley.
Summary
"For the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, and unimportant. Lawrence Keeley's ... [book] offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notions that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization ... Building on ... archeological and historical research and offering ... [a] comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America ... [Keeley] cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world and surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kids of warfare, again finding little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies ... He [also] examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples"--Page 4 of cover
Read More ↓Edition Statements
- Publication Date:1997.
Publication Statements
- Publisher(s):Oxford University Press
- Place of Publication:New York
- Language:eng
- Publication Date:1997.
The Physical Object
- Description:xiv, 245 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : : illustrations, maps ; : 24 cm
Edition Identifiers
- ISBN:0195119126, 9780195119121
- oclc:ocm50900507
- LC Classification:GN799.W26
- Dewey Decimal:355/.009/01
Table of Contents
The pacified past : the anthropology of war -- The dogs of war : the prevalence and importance of war -- Policy by other means : tactics and weapons -- Imitating the tiger : forms of combat -- A skulking way of war : primitive warriors versus civilized soldiers -- The harvest of Mars : the casualties of war -- To the victor : the profits and losses of primitive war -- Crying havoc : the question of causes -- Bad neighborhoods : the contexts for war -- Naked, poor, and mangled peace : its desirability and fragility -- Beating swords into metaphors : the roots of the pacified past -- A trout in the milk : discussion and conclusions.
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