{"product_id":"9781477331941-as-the-gods-kill","title":"As the Gods Kill","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMorality and Social Violence Among the Precolonial Maya\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of war, violence, and sacrifice in precolonial Maya culture and its importance in religious practices.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAs the Gods Kill \u003c\/i\u003edelivers new insights into warfare, weaponry, violence, and human sacrifice among the ancient Maya. While attending to the particularity of a singular historical context, anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew Scherer also suggests that Maya practices have something to tell us about human propensities toward violence more broadly. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Focusing on moral frameworks surrounding deliberate injury and killing, Scherer examines Maya justifications of violence-in particular the obligations to one another, to ancestors, and to the gods that made violence not only permissible but necessary. The analysis isolates key themes underpinning the morality of violence-including justice, vengeance, payment, and \u003ci\u003ecostumbre\u003c\/i\u003e (ritual)-and explores the ethics of violent agents, including warriors, ritual specialists, and the gods. Finally, Scherer addresses motivations for warfare, including the acquisition of spoils, tribute, captives, and slaves. An interdisciplinary case study of morality in an ancient society, \u003ci\u003eAs the Gods Kill\u003c\/i\u003e synthesizes scholarship on an important dimension of precolonial American culture while taking stock of its implications for the social sciences at large. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56977363239286,"sku":"9781477331941","price":69.02,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_39493800.jpg?v=1768481557","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781477331941-as-the-gods-kill","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}