“Between Foragers and Samurai: Violence in Late Prehistoric Japan” – Brian Padgett

During the Yayoi period of Japan (BCE 400 – 250), immigrants from the Asian mainland brought tools and weapons of bronze and iron to Japan, as well as wet rice agriculture, which replaced foraging as the dominant form of subsistence. These were revolutionary changes in subsistence strategies, cultural practices, technology, and politics. By the 3rd century CE, growing social complexity was paving the way to political unification of tribal societies, which would later form the basis for an early state society. This type of transition is often accompanied by periods of warfare and violence, which are relatively understudied in anthropology for this time period. This study focuses on the osteological evidence of trauma to describe the nature and motivation for violence. This research will help develop our understanding of violent conflict prior to the emergence of the first state society in the region. The events of the Yayoi period can give us a framework for understanding such struggles today.

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