| Abstrakt: |
Steven Pinker's thesis on the decline of violence since prehistory has resulted in many popular and scholarly debates on the topic that have ranged--at times even ragedcross the disciplinary spectrum of evolution, psychology, philosophy, biology, history, and beyond. Those disciplines that made the most substantial contribution to the empirical data underpinning Pinker's notion of a more violent prehistoric past, namely, archaeology and bioarchaeology/physical anthropology, have not featured as prominently in these disussions as may be expected. This article will focus on some of the issues resulting from Pinker's oversimplified cross-disciplinary use of bioarchaeological data sets in support of his linear model of the past, a model that, incidentally, has yet to be incorporated into current accounts of violent practices in prehistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
