By considering defensive architecture, weapons, iconographic depictions, and paleopathology, Professor Burger will demonstrate that warfare was not a major factor in the development of early Andean civilization. This belies recent claims that humans are intrinsically warlike and that war provided the stimulus for the development of complex societies.
“ [In Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas], Yale anthropology professor Burger and Salazar, curator of the Machu Picchu collection at Yale's Peabody Museum, present . . . a welcome, in-depth resource for anyone interested in pre-Columbian archaeology and the anthropology of sacred sites.”
— Whitney Scott, Booklist
Richard Burger is Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology at Yale University and Curator in the Division of Anthropology at the Peabody Museum. An archaeologist specializing in the emergence of civilization in the Central Andes, Burger has carried out research in Peru for over two decades. His books on South American prehistory include Chavin and the Origin of Andean Civilization (1992), and Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas (2008). Burger also served as Chair of the Senior Fellows of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. and is currently the President of the Institute of Andean Research (NY).
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