The book brings together a group of authors who are addressing the nature and causes of warfare in simpler, tribal societies. The authors represent a range of different opinions about why humans engage in warfare, why wars start, and the role of war in human evolution. Warfare in cultures from several different world areas is considered, ranging from the Amazon, the Caribbean, the Andes, the Southwestern US, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and Malaysia. To explain the origins and maintenance of war in tribal societies, different authors appeal to a broad spectrum of demographic, environmental, historical and biological variables. Competing explanatory model of warfare are presented with overlapping bodies of data offered in support of each model.
Since ancient times, stories have abounded about the legendary physical prowess of martial artists. Today's lifestyle, coupled with a lack of knowledge about how to combine fitness and budo, has led t
This volume brings together research on the evolution of civilisation in the Andean region of South America from the work of sixteen leading scholars, at one time actively engaged in fieldwork in Peru. Beginning with early chiefdom societies living along the Peruvian coast 2000 years before Christ, the authors trace the growing complexity of Andean states and empires over the next 3000 years. They examine the accomplishments of the ancient Andeans in the rise of magnificent monumental architecture and the construction of unparalleled prehistoric irrigation systems. They also look at the dominant role of warfare in Andean societies and at the collapse of empires in the millennia before the arrival of the Spanish in 1534. Together, the contributors provide the first systematic study of the evolution of polities along the dry coastal plains and high mountain valleys of the Peruvian Andes.
