The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict (Routledge Handbooks (Hardcover))

If human burials were our only window onto the past, what story would they tell? Skeletal injuries constitute the most direct and unambiguous evidence for violence in the past. Whereas weapons or defenses may simply be statements of prestige or status and written sources are characteristically biased and incomplete, human remains offer clear and unequivocal evidence of physical aggression reaching as far back as we have burials to examine. Warfare is often described as ‘senseless’ and as having no place in society. Consequently, its place in social relations and societal change remains obscure. The studies in __The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict__ present an overview of the nature and development of human conflict from prehistory to recent times as evidenced by the remains of past people themselves in order to explore the social contexts in which such injuries were inflicted. A broadly chronological approach is taken from prehistory through to recent conflicts, however this book is not simply a catalogue of injuries illustrating weapon development or a narrative detailing ‘progress’ in warfare but rather provides a framework in which to explore both continuity and change based on a range of important themes which hold continuing relevance throughout human development. Introduction : traumatised bodies : why study violence and warfare? / Christopher Knüsel and Martin J. Smith Trauma interpretation in the context of biological anthropology / Douglas H. Ubelaker and Kristin M. Montaperto Sticks and stones : exploring the nature and significance of child trauma in the past / Mary E. Lewis Trauma in the Krapina Neandertals : violence in the Middle Paleolithic? / V. Hutton Estabrook and David W. Frayer Representing violence in Anatolia and the Near East during the transition to agriculture : readings from contextualized human skeletal remains / Bonnie Glencross and Basak Boz The war to begin all wars? : contextualizing violence in Neolithic Britain / Martin J. Smith Misplaced childhood? : Interpersonal violence and children in Neolithic Europe / Linda Fibiger Human remains from a Bronze-Age site in the Tollense Valley : "victims of a battle" / Ute Brinker, Stefan Flohr, Jürgen Piek and Jörg Orschiedt "Soft heads" : evidence of sexualized warfare during the late Iron Age from Kemerton Camp, Bredon Hill / A. Gaynor Western and J. Derek Hurst Socialized violence : contextualizing violence through mortuary behavior in Iron Age Britain / Sarah S King A bioarchaeological study of violence in the Roman world / Rebecca Redfern The osteology of decapitation burials from Roman Britain : a post-mortem burial rite? / Katie Tucker Interpreting violence : a bioarchaeological perspective of violence from medieval central Sweden / Anna Kjellström Violence and the crusades : warfare, injuries and torture in the medieval Middle East / Piers D. Mitchell Courteous knights and cruel avengers : a consideration of the changing social context of medieval warfare from the perspective of human remains / Christopher J. Knüsel Violence and warfare in the prehistoric San Francisco Bay Area, California : regional and temporal variations in conflict / Eric J. Bartelink, Valerie A. Andrushko, Viviana I. Bellifemine, Irina Nechayev and Robert Jurmain Violent injury and death in a prehistoric farming community of southwestern Colorado : the osteological evidence from Sleeping Ute Mountain / Patricia M. Lambert Gender-based violence in the Wari and post-Wari era of the Andes / Tiffiny A. Tung Many faces of death : warfare, human sacrifice, and mortuary practices of the elite in late pre-Hispanic northern Peru / John W. Verano "Place of strong men" : skeletal trauma and the (re)construction of Chachapoya identity / Kenneth C. Nystrom and J. Marla Toyne A history of violence in the Lambayeque Valley : conflict and eeath from the late pre-Hispanic apogee to European colonization of Peru (A.D. 900-1750) / Haagen Klaus Native American violence in Canada / Jerome Cybulski The Alkmaar mass graves : a multi-disciplinary approach to war victims and gunshot trauma / Rachel Schats, Lisette M. Kootker, Rob Hermsen, Gareth R. Davies, and Menno L.P. Hoogland Indirect evidence of hanging : lesions of traumatic violence in eighteenth-century execution victims from southwest Germany / Joachim Wahl and Carola Berszin Reconstructing the execution and burial of 41 brigands in Mechelen during the Flemish Peasants' War in 1798 / Katrien Van De Vijver and Frank Kinnaer Palaeopathological study of Napoleonic mass graves discovered In Russia / Olivier Dutour, A. Buzhilova "Those in peril on the sea" : trauma in two eighteenth to early nineteenth century British Royal Navy skeletal assemblages / Ceridwen Boston How to say things with bodies : meaningful violence on an American frontier / Shannon A. Novak Sorcery and shipwrecks : headhunting in the Torres Strait Islands / Heather Bonney An osteological profile of trench warfare : peri-mortem trauma sustained by soldiers of the Great War / Louise Loe, Caroline Barker and Richard Wright Paleopathology of German military hospital remains from 1915-1918 / Rimantas Jankauskas, Zydrune Miliauskiene and Albinas Kuncevicius Patterns of peri-mortem trauma in skeletons recovered from mass graves from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) / Luis Rios, Almudena García-Rubio, Berta Martínez, Lourdes Herrasti,Francisco Etxeberria Recent conflicts, deaths and simple technologies : the Rwandan case / Roxana Ferllini The osteology of conflict : what does it all mean? / Christopher Knüsel and Martin J. Smith. "If human burials were our only window onto the past, what story would they tell? Skeletal injuries constitute the most direct and unambiguous evidence for violence in the past. Whereas weapons or defenses may simply be statements of prestige or status and written sources are characteristically biased and incomplete, human remains offer clear and unequivocal evidence of physical aggression reaching as far back as we have burials to examine. Warfare is often described as 'senseless' and as having no place in society. Consequently, its place in social relations and societal change remains obscure. The studies in The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict present an overview of the nature and development of human conflict from prehistory to recent times as evidenced by the remains of past people themselves in order to explore the social contexts in which such injuries were inflicted. A broadly chronological approach is taken from prehistory through to recent conflicts, however this book is not simply a catalogue of injuries illustrating weapon development or a narrative detailing 'progress' in warfare but rather provides a framework in which to explore both continuity and change based on a range of important themes which hold continuing relevance throughout human development"-- Résumé de l'éditeur "If human burials were our only window onto the past, what story would they tell? Skeletal injuries constitute the most direct and unambiguous evidence for violence in the past. Whereas weapons or defenses may simply be statements of prestige or status and written sources are characteristically biased and incomplete, human remains offer clear and unequivocal evidence of physical aggression reaching as far back as we have burials to examine. Warfare is often described as 'senseless' and as having no place in society. Consequently, its place in social relations and societal change remains obscure. The studies in The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict present an overview of the nature and development of human conflict from prehistory to recent times as evidenced by the remains of past people themselves in order to explore the social contexts in which such injuries were inflicted. A broadly chronological approach is taken from prehistory through to recent conflicts, however this book is not simply a catalogue of injuries illustrating weapon development or a narrative detailing 'progress' in warfare but rather provides a framework in which to explore both continuity and change based on a range of important themes which hold continuing relevance throughout human development"-- Provided by publisher Part One: Context is Everything Part Two: Since Time Immemorial? Conflict in Prehistory Part Three: Hierarchies and Violence Part Four: New World Orders: Conflict in the Americas Part Five: Plus ca Change? Modern World Emergence