Bioarchaeological contributions to the study of violence

Abstract

The bioarchaeological record has an abundance of scientific evidence based on skeletal indicators of trauma to argue for a long history of internal and external group conflict. However, the findings also suggest variability, nuance, and unevenness in the type, use, and meaning of violence across time and space and therefore defy generalizations or easy quantification. Documenting violence-related behaviors provides an overview of the often unique and sometimes patterned cultural use of violence. Violence (lethal and nonlethal) is often associated with social spheres of influence and power connected to daily life such as subsistence intensification, specialization, competition for scarce resources, climate, population density, territorial protection and presence of immigrants, to name just a few. By using fine-grained biocultural analyses that interrogate trauma data in particular places at particular times in reconstructed archaeological contexts, a more comprehensive view into the histories and experiences of violence emerges. Moreover, identifying culturally specific patterns related to age, sex, and social status provide an increasingly complex picture of early small-scale groups. Some forms of ritual violence also have restorative and regenerative aspects that strengthen community identity. Bioarchaeological data can shed light on the ways that violence becomes part of a given cultural landscape. Viewed in a biocultural context, evidence of osteological trauma provides rich insights into social relationships and the many ways that violence is embedded within those relation- This review provides a broad perspective on violence from studies looking at human skeletal remains (e.g., bioarchaeology, paleopathology, and forensic anthropology). Violence is a phenomenon that is found in varying expressions in all cultures stretching back to the Paleolithic (Bocquentin and Bar-Yosef, 2004;Estabrook and Frayer, 2014) and possibly farther (Ant on, 2003;Kimbel and Delezene, 2009). Having worked in the area of ancient violence for a number of years we approached this review as a way to offer new frameworks for thinking about violence in the past from the perspective of biological or physical anthropology, which like all other fields of study in anthropology, is scientific, comparative, and cross-cultural in approach.Many researchers use a variety of terms interchangeably such as violence, conflict, and aggression. Our own personal preference is to avoid using the term aggression for humans because it is often used in animal studies and does not imply a connection to culture or to meaning. This is an important distinction because aggression does not always translate into violent behavior. Definitions of violence often imply intentionality, motivation, and culturally defined meaning. What is considered violence in one culture may not be in others. Violence is often socially sanctioned and organized but aggression need not be. Violence can be individual or collective but aggression more often is analyzed at the indi...

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