Violence and Masculinity in Small-Scale Societies

Archaeological and ethnographic accounts of violence in small-scale societies represent a baseline for thinking about the ways that masculinity originated evolved, becoming entwined social processes. Male (lethal nonlethal) is expressed diverse complex because it associated with spheres power influence, embedded within ideologies, histories, collective memories. Applying anthropological research on as generative transformational process demonstrates how plays key role creating, maintaining, transforming structures societies. The reinterpretation massacre sites ancient Southwestern United States terms ideologies beliefs offers an important counterbalance to earlier work portrayed result environmental stressors and/or cultural crises. Using interpretive (poetics) approach focuses ritualized aspects male provides rich insights into processes governing logic normalizes institutionalizes violence.