TY - JOUR
T1 - Population pressure and prehistoric violence in the Yayoi period of Japan
AU - Nakagawa, Tomomi
AU - Tamura, Kohei
AU - Yamaguchi, Yuji
AU - Matsumoto, Naoko
AU - Matsugi, Takehiko
AU - Nakao, Hisashi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS, No. 19J30001, No. 20K00019, No. 17K03226, No. 19H05738, No. 18K01064, No. 19H05733, No. 19H05734, No. 19H04520), and Nanzan University Pache Research Subsidy I-A-1 for the 2020 academic year. We are really grateful to anonymous reviewers for their highly helpful and important comments, which significantly improved our manuscript. We also thank the Saga Prefecture Board of Education for the useful information on the Yoshinogari site and the Chikushino city Board of Education for the permission of the use of photos from the Kuma-Nishioda site.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science ( JSPS , No. 19J30001 , No. 20K00019 , No. 17K03226 , No. 19H05738 , No. 18K01064 , No. 19H05733 , No. 19H05734 , No. 19H04520 ), and Nanzan University Pache Research Subsidy I-A-1 for the 2020 academic year. We are really grateful to anonymous reviewers for their highly helpful and important comments, which significantly improved our manuscript. We also thank the Saga Prefecture Board of Education for the useful information on the Yoshinogari site and the Chikushino city Board of Education for the permission of the use of photos from the Kuma-Nishioda site.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - The causes of prehistoric inter-group violence have been a subject of long-standing debate in archaeology, anthropology, and other disciplines. Although population pressure has been considered as a major factor, due to the lack of available prehistoric data, few studies have directly examined its effect so far. In the present study, we used data on skeletal remains from the middle Yayoi period of the Japanese archipelago, where archaeologists argued that an increase of inter-group violence in this period could be explained by a population-pressure hypothesis. We quantitatively examine the effect of population pressure on the frequency of inter-group violence by compiling an exhaustive data set. We collected demographic information based on burial jars (kamekan) and the frequency of violence based on the ratio of injured individuals. The results are consistent with the hypothesis, i.e., high population density can promote inter-group violence.
AB - The causes of prehistoric inter-group violence have been a subject of long-standing debate in archaeology, anthropology, and other disciplines. Although population pressure has been considered as a major factor, due to the lack of available prehistoric data, few studies have directly examined its effect so far. In the present study, we used data on skeletal remains from the middle Yayoi period of the Japanese archipelago, where archaeologists argued that an increase of inter-group violence in this period could be explained by a population-pressure hypothesis. We quantitatively examine the effect of population pressure on the frequency of inter-group violence by compiling an exhaustive data set. We collected demographic information based on burial jars (kamekan) and the frequency of violence based on the ratio of injured individuals. The results are consistent with the hypothesis, i.e., high population density can promote inter-group violence.
KW - Burial jar (kamekan)
KW - Conflict
KW - Japan
KW - Warfare
KW - Yayoi period
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107697422&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85107697422&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2021.105420
DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2021.105420
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85107697422
SN - 0305-4403
VL - 132
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science
M1 - 105420
ER -
