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.
