From Stone Darts to Dismembered Bodies, New Study Reveals 5,000 Years of Violence in Central CA

a reply to: Hanslune

Nice to see you my friend

It's an interesting article and holds few surprises while reinforcing my gratitude that I live now and not then. Times were hard and frequently involved subsistence with each life being eked out against the odds. Do you recall Nevada's Hidden Cave? The research into that place highlighted that, for many, it was subsistence living in a very tough environment. All cool for those on coastlines and flood plains...not so much fun for others.

That's some extensive research in the article and a tremendous sample size >

Chronicling 16,820 burials from 329 sites among 13 different ethnographic groups,

Out of those burials, they found that ~12% of bodies had injuries consistent with violence and dominated by wounds from arrows and atlatls. That's some ~2020 rather unhappy moments!

I was reminded of Late Antiquity/Middle Age Europe in the way conflict was driven by new technologies and the movements of different peoples. Similarly some of the conflicts were postponed by natural events like the droughts they mentioned. Perhaps rather than a 'spike either side' of the drought, it was 'rain check' forced by lack of resources (food and water)? After all, violence is part of all societies.

Neatly riding the wave of that comparison, we see a crescendo of violence as European intervention brought vastly advanced technologies and very different peoples indeed. It's popular to see the Europeans as 'bad' and yet their own histories involved identical conflicts from the same pressures of migration, climate and technology. The final thought is probably contentious for anyone that likes projecting moral and spiritual values on cultures:

What is abundantly clear is that prehistoric California was populated by intelligent, skilled, anatomically modern human beings who certainly were not savages but nor were they necessarily noble — they were people — subject to the same range of emotions and behavioral responses as other human populations.”

a reply to: Hanslune
Does this refer to all of California or a location more condensed? Curious to know more about this.

originally posted by: cosmicgypsy
a reply to: Hanslune
Does this refer to all of California or a location more condensed? Curious to know more about this.

The authors are referring to an area of the San Joaquin /Sacramento delta and the surrounding foothills

For the most part they are taking about an area from roughly Stockton north to Williams and into the low foothills.
And as I thought the violence is across ethnic and linguistic lines. In this part of cal, all the major language families on north America are present, and there has been conflict between them.

a reply to: punkinworks10Thank you so much for your reply.I will have a look further into this.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: NthOther

I agree insomuch that the Aztecs, in my own estimation, were not the savage, murderous, cult driven freaks that seems popular.

I wouldn't think the any more or less violent than the classical Greek city states were.

I have spent some time in study of Nahuatl mysticism. There is a very deep, dark side to Aztec spirituality. No doubt. And I dont doubt some of the deaths being related to sacrifice. But there are other viewpoints that, in my viewpoint, make more sense than massive murder-fests at the Temple of the Sun.

I am no historian but it sounds like the aztecs took violence to another level. The greeks were in conflict with each other or other countries constantly. The aztecs killed hundreds of thousands of their own. They even had a calendar where they would hold sacrificial holidays throughout the year, and sacrificed different ppl(women children captives etc) as well as entertaining with different killing events on different holidays. Also, the fact that ppls hearts were ripped out and other gruesome methods of killing adds to their savagery imo. Small amounts of these type of ppl do still exist today(taliban, mexican cartels, a few african/middle east countries)