War in the Southwest, War in the World

Abstract

The study of warfare in the ancient Pueblos of the U.S. Southwest has become politicized and contentious, and southwestern data are only rarely used to address larger anthropological theories of war. A cross-cultural model of violence proposed by Carol and Melvin Ember (1992) suggests that war in pre-state societies is predicted by resource unpredictability and socialization for fear. The Ember and Ember model is evaluated using syntheses of southwestern warfare by Steven LeBlanc (1999), environmental variability by Jeffrey Dean (1988, 1996), and political history by Stephen Lekson (1999). The fit between the southwestern data and the model is close, and supports the Ember and Ember model. El estudio de la guerra entre los Pueblos antiguos del Suroeste de los Estados Unidos se ha vuelto politizado y contencioso, y los datos del Suroeste han sido usados raramente para tratar las teorias antropologicas mas extensas sobre la guerra. Un modelo transcultural de violencia propuesto por Carol y Melvin Ember (1992) sugiere que la guerra en sociedades pre-estatales es predecible por la incertidumhre de los recursos y la socializacion por miedo. El modelo de Ember y Ember es evaluado usando la sintesis de la guerra en el Suroeste por Steven LeBlanc (1999), la variabilidad del medio ambiente por Jeffrey Dean (1988, 1996), y la historia politico por Stephen Lekson (1999). La estrecha concordancia entre los datos del Suroeste y el modelo apoya la propuesta de Ember y Ember.

Pilgrimage as costly signal: Religiously motivated cooperation in Chaco and Nasca

“…Lekson (2002) and LeBlanc (1999), for example, note that the evidence for violent interaction that is so common before and especially after the Chaco era was largely absent during Chaco's height; Lekson refers to the pattern as a ''Pax Chaco,'' although others have identified that some forms of violence occurred in specific times and places, especially in the years prior to Chaco's collapse (e.g., Kantner, 1999) and in areas outside of Chaco's most direct influence (e.g., Kohler and Kramer Turner, 2006;Kohler et al, 2009). Kantner and his colleagues (2000) have demonstrated that sharing of locally produced commodities with neighbors was commonplace, but that exchange over longer distances actually decreased during the Chaco era.…”

Paleoclimates and the emergence of fortifications in the tropical Pacific islands

“…This potential causal relationship has been explored by both ecological and economic theory (Baker, 2003;Ember and Ember, 1992), and many anthropological cases have been documented in detail (Carneiro, 1990;Dean, 1996;Haas, 1990;Haas and Creamer, 1993;Jones et al, 1999;Kuhlken, 1999;Lambert, 1994;Lekson, 2002;Otterbein, 1985Otterbein, , 1997Otterbein, , 1999Tainter and Tainter, 1996).…”

A re-assessment of Basketmaker II cave 7: massacre site or cemetery context

“…Upper Plains population densities were higher; evidence for resources stress was greater and residential villages, comprised of as many as 50 dwellings, were defensively situated and typically fortified with ditch and palisade construction prior to occupation (Bamforth, 1994;Willey, 1990:167e171). High levels of violence, approaching warfare, appear to have been endemic in the region (see also LeBlanc, 1999;Lekson, 2002;Rice and LeBlanc, 2001). Willey's (1990) analysis of the Crow Creek, SD, bone beds documents extreme skeletal damage and Bamforth's (1994) review of the study provides context for high-casualty violence in this early Coalescent skeletal assemblage.…”

“…Recent surveys cited above indicate that populations on Cedar Mesa, immediately southwest of Cave 7, were relatively dense and social complexity was greater than previously anticipated. These conditions may have established a volatile social environment in which allied males engaged in episodic violent acts, competing for status, mating opportunity and, during periods of shortfall, access to scarce maize stores or other food caches (see Lekson, 2002). Kohler et al (2008:659;Kohler and Reese, 2012) place the pithouse-to-pueblo transition at ca.…”

“…In 1899, Cave 7 burials were accessioned by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and more recently inventoried to meet NAGPRA requirements, but the burial assemblage received little close attention until the last few decades when Christy Turner II Turner, 1993, Turner andTurner, 1999), Tim White (1992) and others (e.g., LeBlanc, 1999;Lekson, 2002;Rice and LeBlanc, 2001) began investigating evidence for warfare in the prehistoric Southwest. In a contribution to the 1990 WetherillGrand Gulch Symposium, Winston Hurst and Christy Turner presented their reanalysis of the Cave 7 burial assemblage.…”