war before civilization

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War Before Civilization: the Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford University Press, 1996) is a book by Lawrence H. Keeley, an archaeology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicagowho specializes in prehistoric Europe. The book deals with warfare conducted throughout human history by societies with little technology. In the book, Keeley aims to stop the apparent trend in seeing civilization as bad, by setting out to prove that prehistoric societies were violent and frequently engaged in warfare.
Keeley started writing the book after unsuccessfully requesting funds from the U.S. National Science Foundation to excavate several Early Neolithic village sites in Belgium. He hoped to uncover ancient palisades and fortifications similar to others in the area. He was denied the grant until he referred to these other sites as “enclosures” rather than “fortifications”. The politically correct NSF archaeologists couldn’t fathom the concept of prehistoric warfare. To their eyes, violence in prestate societies was infrequent, nonlethal, unimportant, ritualistic, and unsophisticated.
But as Keeley subsequently proves, there’s only so many mass graves and skulls embedded with arrowheads that one can pretend don’t exist. Eventually, the evidence piles up: prehistoric warfare was frequent, deadly, and serious — more “Conan the Barbarian” and less “Dances with Wolves”.

the political correct Myth of the Peaceful Savage
it sounds familiar to me

Has anyone read this 20 year old book?
Any comments?
I don't find many critics.

 

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