The Andean empires only reduced violence against women

Oct. 22 () –

Be part of a centrally organized state society throughout human history does not mean that the probability for the population to suffer violent conflicts decreases.

This is suggested by a new collaborative study of archaeological groups from the Andes region of South America that investigated the extent to which ‘civilization’ protects from violence, one of the most enduring questions among anthropologists. Their conclusions are published in PNAS.

“Our findings suggest that being in a ‘civilization’ may reduce violence, but only for women, and only a little then,” she said. in a statement Thomas J. Snyder, a doctoral candidate in the evolutionary wing of the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study. “The effect for women is more pronounced for lethal violence, that may be more plausibly linked to war than non-lethal violence.”

The researchers investigated the type and frequency of violence experienced by adults in the pre-Hispanic Andean region in large, centrally organized states (also called “civilizations”), as well as more politically autonomous communities. They observed the Existing data on 8,607 adults over a 3,000-year period from 169 published papers representing 155 sites. The sites were in Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.

In the autonomous communities, the probabilities of encountering potentially lethal violent encounters are equivalent between the sexes. The researchers found that they are consistent for men, but decrease for women.

While violence can occur in subtle ways, such as unequal access to necessary resources, this study focused on direct, intentional interpersonal violence, which can occur in wars or battles, or in homes. In particular, women cannot be protected from violence in times of war, either by being taken prisoner, or in some cases, fighting defensively in smaller communities, the researchers said.

This study has important implications for how future scholars engage with concepts of violence, gender and sociopolitical change, Snyder said.

“An individual’s sex was as important or more important than the type of society they inhabited in affecting the risk of trauma,” he said. “Gender, rather than just sociopolitical organization, “has a critically important impact on the experience of interpersonal conflict.”