North American Indigenous Warfare And Ritual Violence

Download or read book North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence written by Richard J. Chacon and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2007-09-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite evidence of warfare and violent conflict in pre-Columbian North America, scholars argue that the scale and scope of Native American violence is exagerated. They contend that scholarly misrepresentation has denigrated indigenous peoples when in fact they lived together in peace and harmony. In rebutting that contention, this groundbreaking book presents clear evidenceÑfrom multiple academic disciplinesÑthat indigenous populations engaged in warfare and ritual violence long before European contact. In ten well-documented and thoroughly researched chapters, fourteen leading scholars dispassionately describe sources and consequences of Amerindian warfare and violence, including ritual violence. Originally presented at an American Anthropological Association symposium, their findings construct a convincing case that bloodshed and killing have been woven into the fabric of indigenous life in North America for many centuries. The editors argue that a failure to acknowledge the roles of warfare and violence in the lives of indigenous North Americans is itself a vestige of colonial repressionÑdepriving native warriors of their history of armed resistance. These essays document specific acts of Native American violence across the North American continent. Including contributions from anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, and ethnographers, they argue not only that violence existed but also that it was an important and frequently celebrated component of Amerindian life. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Richard J. Chacon and RubŽn G. Mendoza 1.ÊÊTraditional Native Warfare in Western Alaska Ernest S. Burch Jr. 2.ÊÊBarbarism and Ardour of War from the Tenderest YearsÓ: Cree-Inuit Warfare in the Hudson Bay Region Charles A. Bishop and Victor P. Lytwyn 3.ÊÊAboriginal Warfare on the Northwest Coast: Did the Potlatch Replace Warfare? Joan A. Lovisek 4.ÊÊEthnohistoric Descriptions of Chumash Warfare John R. Johnson 5.ÊÊDocumenting Conflict in the Prehistoric Pueblo Southwest Polly Schaafsma 6.ÊÊCahokia and the Evidence for Late Pre-Columbian War in the North American Midcontinent Thomas E. Emerson 7.ÊÊIroquois-Huron Warfare Dean R. Snow 8.ÊÊDesecrating the Sacred Ancestor Temples: Chiefly Conflict and Violence in the American Southeast David H. Dye and Adam King 9.ÊÊWarfare, Population, and Food Production in Prehistoric Eastern North America George R. Milner 10.ÊÊThe Osteological Evidence for Indigenous Warfare in North America Patricia M. Lambert 11.ÊÊEthical Considerations and Conclusions Regarding Indigenous Warfare and Violence in North America Richard J. Chacon and RubŽn G. Mendoza References About the Contributors Index

Download or read book Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence written by Richard J. Chacon and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2007-09-06 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 violenceÑincluding ritualized violenceÑin 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 violenceÑarchaeological, osteological, ethnographic, historical, and forensicÑhas 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 writersÑregardless of their discipline or point of viewÑwill have a source to consult for further research. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Richard J. Chacon and RubŽn G. Mendoza 1.ÊÊStatus Rivalry and Warfare in the Development and Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization Matt OÕMansky and Arthur A. Demarest 2.ÊÊAztec Militarism and Blood Sacrifice: The Archaeology and Ideology of Ritual Violence RubŽn G. Mendoza 3.ÊÊTerritorial Expansion and Primary State Formation in Oaxaca, Mexico Charles S. Spencer 4.ÊÊImages of Violence in Mesoamerican Mural Art Donald McVicker 5.ÊÊCircum-Caribbean Chiefly Warfare Elsa M. Redmond 6.ÊÊConflict and Conquest in Pre-Hispanic Andean South America: Archaeological Evidence from Northern Coastal Peru John W. Verano 7.ÊÊThe Inti Raymi Festival among the Cotacachi and Otavalo of Highland Ecuador: Blood for the Earth Richard J. Chacon, Yamilette Chacon, and Angel Guandinango 8.ÊÊUpper Amazonian Warfare Stephen Beckerman and James Yost 9.ÊÊComplexity and Causality in Tupinamb‡ Warfare William BalŽe 10.ÊÊHunter-GatherersÕ Aboriginal Warfare in Western Chaco Marcela Mendoza 11.ÊÊThe Struggle for Social Life in Fuego-Patagonia Alfredo Prieto and Rodrigo C‡rdenas 12.ÊÊEthical Considerations and Conclusions Regarding Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence in Latin America Richard J. Chacon and RubŽn G. Mendoza References About the Contributors Index

Download or read book North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence written by Richard J. Chacon and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2013-02 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book presents clear evidence—from multiple academic disciplines—that indigenous populations engaged in warfare and ritual violence long before European contact.

Download or read book Ritual & Honour written by Max Carocci and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years, Plains Indians and their ancestors have occupied the vast region that stretches from the Mississippi river to the Rocky Mountains and from the Canadian plains to the Gulf of Mexico. Today, peoples such as the Blackfoot and Sioux still live in groups bound by language and shared rituals. From about 1800, one of the most important units beyond the extended family was the 'warrior society' - a social, political and ritual group that engaged in warfare and organised ceremonial life. The societies played a prominent role in battles, offering members the opportunity to gain honours through individual acts of bravery such stealing horses, capturing women, and taking scalps during war raids. These societies, however, have a rich ritual life that was marked by a strong sense of spirituality. In their ceremonies society members made use of objects such as pipes, rattles, and headdresses, as these were significant to their shared ideas of ritual and honour. Through a selection of unique objects from the British Museum's collection, this beautifully illustrated little book explores the world of the warriors of the North American Plains. Here are exceptional examples of feather headdresses, shields, moccasins, painted hides, scalps, pipes, tomahawks, and traditional and contemporary costumes. Many of these items may seem initially familiar from popular culture, but their deeper ritual significance is revealed by the author. A perennially popular subject, this book will appeal to young and old alike.

Download or read book Phantom Past, Indigenous Presence written by Colleen E. Boyd and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The imagined ghosts of Native Americans have been an important element of colonial fantasy in North America ever since European settlements were established in the seventeenth century. Native burial grounds and Native ghosts have long played a role in both regional and local folklore and in the national literature of the United States and Canada, as settlers struggled to create a new identity for themselves that melded their European heritage with their new, North American frontier surroundings. In this interdisciplinary volume, Colleen E. Boyd and Coll Thrush bring together scholars from a variety of fields to discuss this North American fascination with "the phantom Native American." "Phantom Past, Indigenous Presence" explores the importance of ancestral spirits and historic places in Indigenous and settler communities as they relate to territory and history--in particular cultural, political, social, historical, and environmental contexts. From examinations of how individuals reacted to historical cases of "hauntings," to how Native phantoms have functioned in the literature of North Americans, to interdisciplinary studies of how such beliefs and narratives allowed European settlers and Indigenous people to make sense of the legacies of colonialism and conquest, these essays show how the past and the present are intertwined through these stories.

Download or read book Muting White Noise written by James H. Cox and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-19 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Native American fiction writers have confronted Euro-American narratives about Indians and the colonial world those narratives help create. These Native authors offer stories in which Indians remake this colonial world by resisting conquest and assimilation, sustaining their cultures and communities, and surviving. In Muting White Noise, James H. Cox considers how Native authors have liberated our imaginations from colonial narratives. Cox takes his title from Sherman Alexie, for whom the white noise of a television set represents the white mass-produced culture that mutes American Indian voices. Cox foregrounds the work of Native intellectuals in his readings of the American Indian novel tradition. He thereby develops a critical perspective from which to re-see the role played by the Euro-American novel tradition in justifying and enabling colonialism. By examining novels by Native authors—especially Thomas King, Gerald Vizenor, and Alexie—Cox shows how these writers challenge and revise colonizers’ tales about Indians. He then offers “red readings” of some revered Euro-American novels, including Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, and shows that until quite recently, even those non-Native storytellers who sympathized with Indians could imagine only their vanishing by story’s end. Muting White Noise breaks new ground in literary criticism. It stands with Native authors in their struggle to reclaim their own narrative space and tell stories that empower and nurture, rather than undermine and erase, American Indians and their communities.

Download or read book Cannibalism, Headhunting and Human Sacrifice in North America written by George Franklin Feldman and published by Alan C Hood. This book was released on 2008 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Publisher: This riveting volume dispels the sanitized history surrounding Native American practices toward their enemies that preceded the European exploration and colonization of North America. The research is impeccable, the writing sparkling, and the evidence incontrovertible: headhunting, cannibalism and human sacrifice were practiced by many of the native peoples of North America.