Interesting Book

From: Kevin Rose <vladt_at_interaccess.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 01:22:27 -0500 (CDT)

Just finished Lawrence H. Keeley's _War Before Civilization_. It's a very readable book on how "preliterate" groups waged war and relative levels of violence. It's based on both the archaeological record and anthroplogical field work. He demonstrates pretty well that most societies were regularly involved with serious combat and the death rates were significant.

Amoung other things, virtually all preliterate societies didn't take adult male prisoners, killing them out of hand or after playing with them a while. Most cultures, even warlike and violent ones, were not normally run by the accomplished war leaders. Often quite violent and agressive cultures felt that killing an enemy made on spiritually polluted or contaminated, requiring magical cleansing.

Worth a look.

Kevin Rose

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