Landscapes of Movement and Predation

Perspectives from Archaeology, History, and Anthropology

Edited by Brenda J. Bowser and Catherine M. Cameron

SERIES:

The University of Arizona Press

Landscapes of Movement and Predation is a global study of times and places where people were subject to brutality, displacement, and loss of life, liberty, livelihood, and possessions. Extensive landscapes of predation emerged in the colonial era when Europeans expanded across much of the world, appropriating land and demanding labor from Indigenous people, resulting in the enslavement of millions of Africans and Indigenous Americans.

Landscapes of predation also developed in precolonial times in places where people were subjected to repeated ruthless attacks and dislocation. With contributions from archaeologists and a historian, the book provides a startling new perspective on an aspect of the past that is often overlooked: the role of violence in shaping where, how, and with whom people lived. Using ethnohistoric, ethnographic, historic, and archaeological data, the authors explore the actions of both predators and their targets and uncover the myriad responses people took to protect themselves.

Contributors
Fernando Almeida
Thomas John Biginagwa
Brenda J. Bowser
Catherine M. Cameron
Charles Cobb
Robbie Ethridge
Thiago Kater
Richard M. Leventhal
Lydia Wilson Marshall
Cliverson Pessoa
Neil Price
Ben Raffield
Andrés Reséndez
Samantha Seyler
Fabíola Andréa Silva

Reviews
Editor

This innovative and surprising book stakes out a theoretical space where the widespread phenomenon of predation is considered by historians, ethnohistorians, and archaeologists. Well defined contributions come from Africa, Europe, North America, and South America, and knit compelling details into a strong theoretical fabric. The reader will find useful connections and a guidebook to an emerging literature within landscape archaeology.'—John Walker, author of Island, River, and Field Landscape Archaeology in the Llanos de Mojos

'Landscapes of Movement and Predation adds a global perspective to our understanding of the role of captives, slaves, and unfree in prehistory.'—Kristian Kristiansen, author of Archaeology and the Genetic Revolution in European Prehistory

Brenda J. Bowser is a professor in the Division of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. She is an archaeologist whose research focuses on landscape, materiality, identity, and Indigenous responses to colonialism from an ethnoarchaeological perspective.

Catherine M. Cameron is professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her current research focuses on a global study of prehistoric warfare, captive-taking, and enslavement in small-scale societies.

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