Steven A. LeBlanc

Katherine E. Register

The author argues that warfare has been a part of human existence throughout history, and considers whether humans are doomed by genetic heritage to fight each other.

The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage

Constant Battles

Patty Jo Watson

A descriptive report from a Halafian area with little previous excavation data. The Halaf represent one of the earliest complex societies in Western Asia, from ca. 5000 to 4500 BC, and also one of the earliest agricultural societes to use draft animals. Thus the authors explore the impact of new technologies on ancient societies and on surrounding culture groups. Includes data on ceramics, lithics, faunal remains, burials, and architecture.

A Halafian Site in Southeastern Turkey

Girikihaciyan

Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest

Why We Fight

With armed conflict in the Persian Gulf now upon us, Harvard archaeologist Steven LeBlanc takes a long-term view of the nature and roots of war, presenting a controversial thesis: The notion of the "noble savage" living in peace with one another and in harmony with nature is a fantasy. In Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage, LeBlanc contends that warfare and violent conflict have existed throughout human history, and that humans have never lived in ecological balance with nature. The start of the second major U.S. military action in the Persian Gulf, combined with regular headlines about spiraling environmental destruction, would tempt anyone to conclude that humankind is fast approaching a catastrophic end. But as LeBlanc brilliantly argues, the archaeological record shows that the warfare and ecological destruction we find today fit into patterns of human behavior that have gone on for millions of years. Constant Battles surveys human history in terms of social organization-from hunter gatherers, to tribal agriculturalists, to more complex societies. LeBlanc takes the reader on his own digs around the world -- from New Guinea to the Southwestern U.S. to Turkey -- to show how he has come to discover warfare everywhere at every time. His own fieldwork combined with his archaeological, ethnographic, and historical research, presents a riveting account of how, throughout human history, people always have outgrown the carrying capacity of their environment, which has led to war. Ultimately, though, LeBlanc's point of view is reassuring and optimistic. As he explains the roots of warfare in human history, he also demonstrates that warfare today has far less impact than it did in the past. He also argues that, as awareness of these patterns and the advantages of modern technology increase, so does our ability to avoid war in the future.

A Halafian site in southeastern Turkey

Harriet S. Cosgrove

C. Burton Cosgrove

This classic volume on the evocative and enigmatic pottery of the Mimbres people has become an irreplaceable design catalogue for contemporary Native American artists. The Peabody’s reissue of The Swarts Ruin once again makes available a rich resource for scholars, artists, and admirers of Native American art.

Steven A. LeBlanc

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