Rate of violent deaths in state societies 3 !Kung Bushmen (Kalahari) (after the establishment of a state authority) !Kung Bushmen (Kalahari) (before the establishment of a state authority) Tiwi 1893-1903 (Australia) (Hunter-Gatherer) Murngin, 20 years (Australia) (Hunter-Gatherer) Violent deaths per 100.000 people per year California (28 sites), 3500 BCE – 1380 CEĬentral California (2 sites), 2240 BCE – 1770 CEĮthnographic Evidence on Violent Deaths in Nonstate Societies Compared with Violent Deaths in State Societies Volos’ke, Ukraine (“Epipalaeolithic” ☗500BCE) Non-quantitative information on violence is abundant for example through forms of art.īritish Columbia (30 sites, 3500 BCE – 1674 CE years before present) Data from both archaeological and ethnographic studies is presented in the dataset on this website, but it is not all the information we have on violence in different societies. They present data on the share of people that died in violent conflict with other humans in scientific studies.

For the more distant past, we have information on the prevalence of violence from archeologists who have studied violence in past societies by studying archeological sites and skeletal remains. Homicide rates for modern times are routinely published by statistical offices or other state agencies, and research institutes publish reliable data on war deaths.įor the study of lethal violence in non-state societies we have generally two different sources of information for the more recent past (since the late 19th century) abundant ethnographic evidence is available. This is what the data tells us, and I have visualized this evidence in a series of barcharts. The levels of violence in prehistoric times (archeological evidence) and in non-state societies (ethnographic evidence) was much higher than in modern state societies and in the world today.

Garden warfare 2 serial key