Biological warfare is a menacing twenty-first-century issue, but
its origins extend to antiquity. While the recorded use of toxins
in warfare in some ancient populations is rarely disputed (the use
of arsenical smoke in China, which dates to at least 1000 BC, for
example) the use of "poison arrows" and other deadly substances by
Native American groups has been fraught with contradiction. At last
revealing clear documentation to support these theories,
anthropologist David Jones transforms the realm of ethnobotany in
Poison Arrows.
Examining evidence within the few extant descriptive accounts of
Native American warfare, along with grooved arrowheads and clues
from botanical knowledge, Jones builds a solid case to indicate
widespread and very effective use of many types of toxins. He
argues that various groups applied them to not only warfare but
also to hunting, and even as an early form of insect extermination.
Culling extensive ethnological, historical, and archaeological
data, Jones provides a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the use
of ethnobotanical and entomological compounds applied in
wide-ranging ways, including homicide and suicide. Although many
narratives from the contact period in North America deny such uses,
Jones now offers conclusive documentation to prove otherwise.
A groundbreaking study of a subject that has been long
overlooked, Poison Arrows imparts an extraordinary new perspective
to the history of warfare, weaponry, and deadly human
ingenuity.
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