Les guerriers dans la brume. Éléments d’archéologie sur la violence et ses acteurs à la fin de la Préhistoire au Japon

Résumé En

Among the many mythological figures, the warrior is an often noticed (and studied) one. Japanese mythology is no exception. Warlike mythical heroes such as Yamato Takeru are often presented as unsettling characters, often prone to uncontrollable outbursts of violence, and both bound by the duties of their service and very self-centered in the choices they make to accomplish them. This kind of untamed, frightening aspect of warlike heroes is often tempered with a “tuned down” tendency, in the more modern sense of the nation-state framework. The Japanese heroes, in this respect, are not treated differently than their European counterparts. In contrast to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, present-day archaeology no longer deals with the verification of the conformity of mythology with material and objective evidence of ancient societies. No one would see the interest in locating Yamato Takeru’s grave in Japan, no more than one would now consider that Heinrich Schliemann was making a valuable scientific point by “uncovering” the tomb of Agamemnon in 1876. Crucially, archaeology opens a window on the apparent realities of armed conflicts in ancient societies. The mist of ancient times when the myths of warlike heroes such as Yamato Takeru were fostered reveals the material reality of violence and its “specialists,” which allows us to grasp essential aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic elements of these societies.