Introduction: Towards a Social Archaeology of Warfare Author(s): Roberta Gilchrist Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 35, No. 1, The Social Commemoration of Warfare (Jun., 2003), pp. 1-6 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3560208 . Accessed: 28/02/2011 13:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org

Introduction: towards a social archaeology of warfare Roberta Gilchrist Abstract The recent explosion of interest in the archaeology of warfare is examined, and some possible reasons behind this trend are explored. Characteristics in the archaeology of warfare are identified in relation to prehistoric and historical archaeology and their contrasting sources of evidence. The androcentric tendency of the archaeology of warfare is discussed, and the major themes of the volume are introduced, including memorial landscapes, commemorative monuments and their conflicting meanings, and the social context of warfare. Keywords Warfare war warrior weapons memory emotion commemoration. The theme of this volume is timely in a number of respects. It responds to the recent proliferation of cross-cultural and prehistoric studies devoted to warfare, and to the growing popular interest in the material remains of twentieth-century military conflicts. The volume engages critically with existing approaches to warfare, and many contributors explore alternative, social archaeologies of war. Distinctive themes arising from these studies include memorial landscapes, commemorative monuments and their conflicting meanings, the social context of warfare, and post-colonial, somatic and gendered perspec- tives on warfare. Warfare has emerged as a major topic in prehistoric and theoretical archaeology only since the mid-1990s. This lacuna contrasts markedly with the large corpus of work devoted to the anthropology of warfare, and with the long-standing tradition of military history (and corresponding branches of classical, medieval and historical military archaeology). Why has this intense interest in warfare emerged only recently? One catalyst was a critical work by Keeley, War Before Civilization (1996). Keeley argued that the past had been artificially 'pacified' by the interpretations of anthropologists and archaeologists, which adhered to 'the myth of the peaceful savage'. Certainly Keeley's critique prompted a shift in the tenor of warfare studies, with a deluge of grittier works promoting 'the archaeology Routledge World Archaeology Vol. 35(1): 1-6 The Social Commemoration of Warfare Taylor&FransGroup ? 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online DOI: 10.1080/0043824032000078045