Justice and Warfare in Aboriginal Australia by Christophe Darmangeat ISBN 9781793632319, 9781793632326, 1793632316, 1793632324 instant download

Justice and Warfare in Aboriginal Australia by Christophe Darmangeat ISBN 9781793632319, 9781793632326, 1793632316, 1793632324 instant download

Christophe Darmangeat is lecturer at the University of Paris.

"For over a century anthropologists have sought to counter ethnocentric and unilineal evolutionary views of Australian hunter-gatherer societies by emphasizing their sophisticated environmental knowledge, efficacious socio-political organization, and complex cosmology. Embedded in this approach has been a tacit acceptance by the vast majority of anthropologists that pre-European Australia was a continent of peace where conflict was solved solely through cooperation and avoidance. This view has had a profound impact on the study of the origins of violence and warfare in human history. A handful of scholars have reevaluated this assumption through consideration of evidence from archaeology, oral tradition, history, ethnography, and material culture. This book, however, is the first comprehensive analysis of this material. Darmangeat assembles detailed evidence for violence and warfare among Australian foragers through the critical lens of a Marxist perspective. Particularly valuable is his emphasis on placing conflict within the context of traditional justice systems. The result is a vital and long overdue contribution to the study of the origins of violence and warfare among hunter-gatherers."

— Mark W. Allen, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona

Chapter 1: Characterizing Aboriginal Societies

Chapter 2: Common Forms of Justice

Chapter 3: Deadly Confrontations

Chapter 4: Why Fight?

Chapter 5: A General Classification of Organized Violence

Chapter 6: On the War Path

Chapter 7: Means of War

Chapter 8: Australia, a Unique Case?