Overview

This groundbreaking multidisciplinary book presents significant essays on historical indigenous violence in Latin America from Tierra del Fuego to central Mexico. The collection explores those uniquely human motivations and environmental variables that have led to the native peoples of Latin America engaging in warfare and ritual violence since antiquity. Based on an American Anthropological Association symposium, this book collects twelve contributions from sixteen authors, all of whom are scholars at the forefront of their fields of study. All of the chapters advance our knowledge of the causes, extent, and consequences of indigenous violence—including ritualized violence—in Latin America. Each major historical/cultural group in Latin America is addressed by at least one contributor. Incorporating the results of dozens of years of research, this volume documents evidence of warfare, violent conflict, and human sacrifice from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, including incidents that occurred before European contact. Together the chapters present a convincing argument that warfare and ritual violence have been woven into the fabric of life in Latin America since remote antiquity. For the first time, expert subject-area work on indigenous violence—archaeological, osteological, ethnographic, historical, and forensic—has been assembled in one volume. Much of this work has heretofore been dispersed across various countries and languages. With its collection into one English-language volume, all future writers—regardless of their discipline or point of view—will have a source to consult for further research.

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9780816540099

Table of Contents

Reviews

"No single book has attempted to integrate so many examples from such a large area in such a systematic fashion. It synthesizes into a coherent whole a great deal of information that has been quite diffuse. All of the interpretations seem cogent, credible, and compelling. I see this as a useful and convenient source of information and ideas for many years to come.""—Jeffrey R. Parsons"

No single book has attempted to integrate so many examples from such a large area in such a systematic fashion. It synthesizes into a coherent whole a great deal of information that has been quite diffuse. All of the interpretations seem cogent, credible, and compelling. I see this as a useful and convenient source of information and ideas for many years to come. No single book has attempted to integrate so many examples from such a large area in such a systematic fashion. It synthesizes into a coherent whole a great deal of information that has been quite diffuse. All of the interpretations seem cogent, credible, and compelling. I see this as a useful and convenient source of information and ideas for many years to come. --Jeffrey R. Parsons

No single book has attempted to integrate so many examples from such a large area in such a systematic fashion. It synthesizes into a coherent whole a great deal of information that has been quite diffuse. All of the interpretations seem cogent, credible, and compelling. I see this as a useful and convenient source of information and ideas for many years to come. -Jeffrey R. Parsons

Author Information

Richard J. Chacon is an assistant professor of anthropology at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork among the indigenous peoples of Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador. Rubén G. Mendoza is a professor of social and behavioral sciences at California State University, Monterey Bay, where he founded and directs the Institute for Archaeological Science, Technology, and Visualization. A widely published author, he is also a past president of the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists.

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