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The Context of Ancient American Violence

Violence has become a popular research topic in archaeology. Various types of violence are now the focus of investigation, such as warfare, ethnic conflict, and violence that does not involve bodily harm. The theoretical perspectives of researchers working in this area have diversified as well. From an early and still dominant focus on neoevolutionary approaches, recent works have increasingly come to rely on various postmodern perspectives, as exemplified in the four books under review. The approaches taken by these works are well-suited to combating the popular misrepresentations of violence in, and the concomitant denigration of, ancient American societies. As these books demonstrate, this is achieved, not by whitewashing the archaeological record but, rather, by examining the evidence, and especially the context in which it occurs, in closer detail. El sacrificio humano en la tradición religiosa mesoamericana, edited by Leonardo López Luján and Guilhem Olivier, is the most comprehensive treatment of the topic to date and will undoubtedly serve as an important reference for some time to come. Geographic coverage spans Mesoamerica, including Oaxaca, the Maya area, Veracruz,