Reviews War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America By David H. Dye (AltaMira Press, 2009; 216 pgs., illus., $70 cloth, $28 paper; www. altamirapress.com)
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland By Sally M. Walker (Carolrhoda Books, 2009; 144 pgs., illus., $23 cloth; www.lernerbooks.com)
Taking advantage of young people’s interest in all things spooky and mysterious, Walker gives a compelling account of the archaeological excavations of long-hidden graves that gradually revealed the lives of several Jamestown and Colonial Maryland colonists. With numerous color photographs to illustrate her points, Walker shows how detailed clues can provide reliable information about the lives of the colonists. By understanding the “messages” found on the bones, the reader is introduced to the hardships of life during Colonial times. Tooth infections, badly mended broken bones, tuberculosis of the spine, and a hasty, suspicious burial beneath a house reveal how socio-economic forces, medical knowledge of the day, and civic and religious customs all contributed to the fates of these people. Readers are also exposed to the practice of field archaeology, with its emphasis on finding clues and solving mysteries. Written in clear, easy to understand terms, this well-produced and visually appealing book is targeted for grades five to eight, but it will appeal to all ages. Schools and libraries will find it particularly useful. This book complements the “Written in Bone” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, which runs through February of 2011. —Cynthia Martin
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Archaeologist David Dye of the University of Memphis has produced the first comprehensive study of prehistoric war and peace in Eastern North America. It is long overdue and fills a huge gap in our understanding of ancient societies. Violence, according to Dye, pervades all aspects of social life. So does peace. Both can only be understood in the historical context of millennia. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of burned villages, traumatic injuries, and fortifications, yet for some inexplicable reason the myth of “peaceful savages,” free of the ills of Western culture including violent conflict, persisted into recent times. Excavation of a scalped Archaic man became national news. Disbelief accompanied the discovery of hundreds of massacred ancient men, women, and children in a South Dakota ditch in the 1970s. The corollary, of course, is that humans are by nature violent, and that warfare is the natural state. In War Paths, Peace Paths, Dye closely examines both cooperation and conflict, taking us to a deeper understanding of how ancient cultures dealt with war and peace. Dye finds three trends in Eastern North America over the last 13,000 years. The first trend is personal grudges that were typical of family-level hunter-gatherers. Second is kin-based feuding. A killing leads to vengeance, which is usually limited to one or two homicides by kin groups. The third trend is warfare, impersonal aggression between communities accompanied by alliances and diplomacy. War Paths, Peace Paths skillfully traces all three trends in Native culture as violence and peace evolved over the millennia. Just as warfare became more organized and effective over time, so too did peace making, as illustrated by the sophisticated institutions of the Iroquois tribes.
spring • 2009
