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War: Built on Bones

Up until very recently, and even continuing today, many people believed in "the myth of the peaceful savage," as Lawrence Keeley referred to it in the subheader of his 1990s book on the topic. Essentially, before a certain point, the idea was that humans were largely peaceful. Native Americans, nomadic tribes in Africa... groups that hadn't been poisoned by civilization and lived in harmony with nature were not prone to the kind of violent conflict that seemed to plague the modern man. In this chapter, Hassett debunks this, tracing violence in the form of community on community conflict all the way back to perhaps the beginnings of communities. There wasn't previously much evidence to support this, but over time evidences of massacres started to pop up in Africa, Germany and Austria -- massacres that involved trauma to the backs of the skulls of men, women and children that were then tossed aside into bogs, or perhaps cannibalized and left deep in the caves. There a

Ancient Violence Toward the Individual: Built on Bones

This is the first entry in what may become a longer-term blog (or remain forever a single-entry blog) aimed at helping me remember what I read. I am someone who is very engaged with whatever text I'm holding. I prefer paper to e-readers--something that is supposed to help with information retention; I highlight and write in the margins of all my books--to the horror of some friends, but also an activity that should help with recall; and I read for enjoyment. Yet when asked to explain something I've read, I struggle, and when I feel urged to initiate an argument against something I know to be false, the clumsy sprint to the bookshelf and shuffling through of books to find the most appropriate highlight that will make my case most usually results in my keeping my mouth shut, or offering at most a tentative: "Hmm, I'm not sure that's the case, but maybe." Explaining what you've read and teaching it to others is supposed to be an excellent way to retain info