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June 25, 2009
Careful with that external validity
In ancient graves excavated previously, Bowles found that up to 46 per cent of the skeletons from 15 different locations around the world showed signs of a violent death. More recently, war inflicted 30 per cent of deaths among the Ache, a hunter-gatherer population from Eastern Paraguay, 17 per cent among the Hiwi, who live in Venezuela and Colombia, while just 4 per cent among the Anbara in northern Australia.Ancient warfare: Fighting for the greater good
This is tricky. We know that many cultures have special honors for those dying in battle. We don't know if those dying a violent death were singled out for special burial resulting in their skeletons lasting into the present day. If they were, then examining the burial evidence doesn't tell us how violent these societies were.
Posted by OneEyedMan at June 25, 2009 11:45 AM
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