The evolution of complex cultural systems is marked by a number of broad, sweeping patterns that characterize many different cultures at different points in time across the globe. Over the course of the past 100,000 years, there has been a general evolutionary trend for cultural systems to get larger and more complex. A consistent element in the broad course of cultural evolu- tion has been the emergence and subsequent development of centralized forms of political organization. The record of the first modern humans illuminates a global wide pat- tern of relative social equality and...

The book brings together a group of authors who are addressing the nature and causes of warfare in simpler, tribal societies. The authors represent a range of different opinions about why humans engage in warfare, why wars start, and the role of war in human evolution. Warfare in cultures from several different world areas is considered, ranging over the Amazon, the Caribbean, the Andes, the Southwestern United States, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and Malaysia. To explain the origins and maintenance of war in tribal societies, different authors appeal to a broad spectrum of demographic,...

The Islamic culture that developed in the ninth and tenth centuries AD in what is now Eastern Iran was to have a significant impact on most Muslims of west, south and central Asia. Under the patronage of Persianized Turkic Muslim rulers, the culture spread westward to the Mediterranean and eastward into India. Up to the fifteenth century AD, Turko-Persia represented a distinctive variant of Islamic life and thought in these regions, particularly among the elite, but thereafter regional variants started to emerge. This collection of essays comprises an historical survey of the culture, a...

This volume brings together research on the evolution of civilisation in the Andean region of South America from the work of sixteen leading scholars.

Since ancient times, stories have abounded about the legendary physical prowess of martial artists. Today's lifestyle, coupled with a lack of knowledge about how to combine fitness and budo, has led to a rapid decline in martial artists levels of strength and conditioning. Warrior Fitness will help you and your students attain a new level of strength, flexibility and endurance -- quickly and with little chance of injury. Warrior Fitness combines old school fitness with modern exercise science. Warrior Fitness covers: Flexibility, Joint mobility, Flow drills, Breathing exercises, Strength...

What is the role of leadership in society? Why do people surrender their political autonomy to the decision-making authority of leaders and rulers? Why do people follow the commands of their leaders? Who gets to be king/chief/emperor and why? Why are some societies centralized while others are not? The papers in this volume draw on the archaeological record of societies from around the world to address these critical issues in contemporary social science.