THE „I” OF A WARRIOR. SOCIAL COMPLEXITY AND CULTURAL RECOGNITION OF WARRIOR VIRTUES IN THE CORDED WARE СULTURE
https://doi.org/10.18384/2310-676X-2020-5-89-105
Abstract
Aim. The aim of this paper is to elaborate a contemporary approach to warriors in archaeology. This particular type of social identity has been sufficiently researched and described in cultural anthropology. However, despite the abundance of information, the recognition of this phenomenon in the debate concerning prehistoric societies has been by no means satisfactory. Therefore, an attempt to provide new interpretations, incorporating various types of interdisciplinary data, must be made. Methodology. One of the ways to better comprehend the essence of warriorhood is to emphasize its universal “core”, consisting of a set of physiological reactions to confrontation and social mechanisms covering mutual relations between warriors and other members of a society they belonged to. As a social figure of great importance, a warrior was entangled in a vast network of social relations, which constituted his/her social being. Taking that into account, it is mandatory to study not only material symbols of martial prowess, such as weapons or anthropomorphic figurines, but also the so-called contextual background, including sex, age of weapon-wielders, burial customs attributed to them, as well as their relations to community members buried without attributes of war. This particular goal is often difficult to achieve, mostly due to poor preservation of skeletons or elusive and ambiguous character of social differences displayed in burial ritual. Nevertheless, few cultural traditions from the pre-state era in prehistory offer an invaluable field for this kind of research. The Corded Ware culture is undoubtedly one of them. It puts a strong emphasis on virility and martial prowess, by transcending these values from the world of the living into domain of the dead. Therefore, it will constitute the focal point of the presented idea of warriorhood. Results. The authors’ intention was to emphasize the fact that, despite its spatio-temporal variety, the phenomenon of warriorhood is characterized by a number of unique features, which occur universally in many cultures all over the world. Research implications. The approach to warriorhood presented in this paper combines the socio-anthropological background with the analysis of archaeological data in order to provide a more subject-oriented line of interpretation.
About the Authors
R. Skrzyniecki
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
W. Skrzyniecka
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
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