Warfare in Cultural Context

Axel E Nielsen

ISBN 10: 0816531021 / ISBN 13: 9780816531028

Edité par INGRAM INTERNATIONAL INC Feb 2014, 2014

A propos de cet article

Neuware - According to the contributors to this volume, archaeologists have assumed that war is always essentially the same phenomenon and follows a common logic. Instead they contend that agency and culture, inherited values and dispositions, beliefs, and institutions are always woven into the conduct of war. This book focuses on the ways that specific people construed their interests and life projects, and their problems and possibilities, and consequently chose between alternative courses of action.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9780816531028

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Warfare in Cultural Context
• Éditeur: INGRAM INTERNATIONAL INC Feb 2014
• Date de parution: 2014
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0816531021
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780816531028
• Reliure: Taschenbuch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 226 L x 150 H x 20 P (en millimètres) 226 millimètres de largeur par 150 millimètres de hauteur par 20 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 408 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Warfare is a constant in human history. According to the contributors to this volume, archaeologists have assumed that-within certain socioenvironmental parameters-war is always essentially the same phenomenon and follows a common logic, breaking out under similar conditions and having analogous effects on the people involved. In pursuit of this idea, archaeologists have built models to account for the occurrence of war in various times and places. The models are then tested against prehistoric evidence to make the causes and conduct of war predictable and data-based.

However, contributors argue, this model-and-evidence approach has given rise to multiple competing hypotheses and ambiguity rather than to full, coherent explanations of what turns out to be surprisingly complex acts of war. The chapters in Warfare in Cultural Context contend that agency and culture, inherited values and dispositions (such as religion and other cultural practices), beliefs, and institutions are always woven into the conduct of war.

This revealing book focuses on the ways that specific people construed their interests and life projects, and their problems and possibilities, and consequently chose among alternative courses of action. Using archaeological and ethnohistorical data from various parts of the world, the contributors explore the multiple avenues for the cultural study of warfare that these ideas make possible. Contributions focus on cultural aspects of warfare in Mesoamerica, South America, North America, and Southeast Asia. Case studies include warfare among the Maya, Inca, southwestern Pueblos, Mississippian cultures, and the Enga of Papua New Guinea.

À propos de l'auteur

Axel E. Nielsen is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona as well as professor titular of prehistory at the Universidad de Córdoba in Argentina.