In the last two decades, archaeology has enjoyed an active research trend on the role of violence, conflict, and warfare among Indigenous societies of the Americas before the sixteenth century, revealing not only their temporal dynamics but also their variability across cultures. In this scholarly context, this edited volume appears as a welcome contribution aiming to cover the topic of domination among Indigenous societies of what is today Latin America.
As the introduction states, domination is a stable power relationship in which one side benefits or exercises (more) control over others. Paradoxically, when domination strategies fail is when these strategies are more clearly manifested (p. 2). After all, a successful domination would be subtle. Consequently, when researchers rely on defensive architecture, military technology, and other prominent archaeological signatures of warfare (as many chapters in this book), they may be working with evidence of such failure, attempts, or processes to dominate others.
The book is composed of a heterogeneous group of chapters ranging from war technology and tactics (chapter 2), a discussion on the nature of war (chapter 3 and chapter 4), a challenge to the idea of widespread warfare in late Central Andes (chapter 5), the mechanisms of Inca imperial expansion (chapter 6), and an ethnographic case on the relation between domestic violence and warfare in Ecuador (chapter 7). Most of these chapters introduce cases and present evidence that indeed increases our knowledge of how violence was affecting life, and how war was waged (or not) among these societies.
In chapter 2, Mariana Favila Vázquez uses, interprets, and connects information from different sources to present the technology and combat tactics in aquatic environments among Mesoamerican societies. This interesting and richly illustrated chapter demonstrates how navigation in sea, lacustrine, and river environments shaped such technology and warfare, allowing for rapid mobilization of troops at long distances as an effective use of surprise attacks and quick retreats.
In chapter 3, Krzysztof Makowski presents three cases from Coastal Peru to propose the formation of warrior cultures and “ritualized war” in the Central Andes. His argument starts with a discussion of the dichotomy between “real” and “ritual” war, connecting cases (Tablada de Lurín, Chankillo, and Moche) that some would find temporally, spatially, and culturally distant. Continuing in the Central Andes, but much later in history, Vincent Chamussy and Romuald Housse present in chapter 4 a detailed and insightful comparison of fortifications and fortified settlements. The authors argue that these places have multiple functions, from sporadic defensive nature to imperial frontiers to ceremonial walling off sacred mountains. They review the concept of pucara to point out that today’s use (to identify defensive settlements) differs from its original multifaceted meaning, including symbolic functions.
The pucara case is placed in what is known by Andean scholars as the Late Intermediate period, which is often seen as a moment of generalized intercommunity violence. In chapter 5, Peter Eeckhout and Lawrence S. Owens argue that this general view is skewed and biased. They review the case of Pachacamac and Yschma society, putting together multiple lines of evidence to argue in favor of a less violent scenario for the Central Coast.
By the time of the Spanish invasion in the 1530s, all these Late Intermediate groups were part of the Tahuantinsuyo, what the Incas called their imperial realm. In chapter 6, Dennis Ogburn discusses how the Incas became an empire. Competition between ambitious leaders and their families created the context for the expansion by military means. These individuals demonstrated their value in combat within a widespread warrior culture.
In chapter 7, Stephen Beckermann, Pamela Erickson, and James Yost discuss the relationship between warfare and domestic violence to show the multiple motivations behind the exercise of violence. The chapter vividly illustrates the lives of Indigenous Waorani and Yanomamö. The explanations are often found in observations that, while reachable by an ethnographer, are inaccessible to those who study the remote past. This reminds archaeologists to be careful about their assumptions about attributing the cause of violence to a few factors.
In the final part of the volume, Nam C. Kim provides a very insightful discussion. His chapter 8 and the introduction (by the editors) provide the theoretical framework to understand these chapters comparatively. He reminds us that domination and warfare are about groups of people, and many decisions can be explained by the result of collective action and not mere individual entrepreneurship.
This book is a collection of provocative chapters, many with novel data and interpretations. I recommend its reading for the detailed description of cases and alternative formulations to understand Indigenous warfare. The volume could have benefited from each contributor’s in-depth treatment of dominance and power, not only in the introduction and final discussion. For instance, some questions that I have after reading the chapters include how do warrior cultures serving for faction building and social cohesion (chapter 3, p. 63) relate to strategies of domination of other groups? In chapter 4, the authors describe defensive infrastructure, but how does this relate to strategies of domination or their failure? The argument for a peaceful Pachacamac-Yschma society seems convincing in chapter 5. However, following the book’s topic, can it be seen as a successful example of domination over other communities by non-coercive means? Finally, for the Inca case, Ogburn aims to explain the military expansion of the Inca, but how did they exercise dominance over these other conquered groups? Recent history has demonstrated that defeating an opponent in battle can be less complicated than changing behavior and practices and building a state. The answers to all these questions may have been published elsewhere but having them here could have added another reason why this book is worth reading.
