War Before Civilization

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

War Before Civilization is a book by archaeologist Lawrence H. Keeley (1996) that argues the idea of a peaceful prehistoric world is largely a myth. Keeley shows that many ancient and tribal societies engaged in serious, often brutal warfare long before modern technology.

Key ideas
- War was common. Keeley finds that about 90–95% of known societies practiced some form of warfare. Peaceful groups were usually isolated nomads, refugees, or tiny communities under a stronger state’s protection.
- Warrior life could be deadly. Casualty rates in tribal warfare could reach up to 60%, far higher than typical modern wars. When measured as deaths per year or as a share of the population, tribal fighting could be many times more deadly than 20th‑century wars.
- The evidence is widespread. Burials at Jebel Sahaba in Sudan (about 13,000 years old) show many died in conflict. In the American Southwest, pueblos were burned and abandoned after attacks. The Crow Creek site in South Dakota reveals a massacre that killed more than 60% of a village’s people. Other groups, like the Yanomamo in the Amazon, also show long histories of conflict.
- Violent customs and tactics existed. Indigenous peoples fought over women, land, and prestige and sometimes used scalps or brutal reprisals. Some groups even fought well against outsiders using clever tactics—surprise raids, ambushes, mobility, and destroying an enemy’s resources.
- Against colonization, smart, small-scale warfare helped some tribes survive. European conquest often failed against indigenous strategies, but European disease also caused enormous deaths among Native populations.
- A few surprising notes. Keeley points out examples where so‑called primitive groups anticipated ideas that would later appear in modern warfare, such as aerial bombardment, showing that some tactics could be ahead of their time.

Reception and impact
- Keeley’s book challenged comfortable beliefs about prehistory and violence. It attracted praise for its clear, careful analysis and its stark reminder that human aggression has deep roots.
- Some critics argued Keeley may overstate how common ancient warfare was in every culture, but many still found the book thought-provoking and important.
- The book was recognized as a significant historical work and was a finalist for a major history prize.

Overall, War Before Civilization presents a provocative, readable case that violence and war are not inventions of modern times, but long-standing features of human societies.