Meanings of Violence: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

by Jon Abbink (Editor), Göran Aijmer (Editor)

Overview

There are good reasons to look at violence from new perspectives. In its endless manifestations violence is part and parcel of human existence, and is very probably a constituting element of human society. And yet violent action - warfare, penalties, insults, feuding, assault, murder, rape, suicide, sports - remains in all its complexity one of the least understood fields of human social life.The book's contributors identify the symbolic and ritualized aspects of violence, and suggest ways of 'reading' violence as it occurs in the world, whether as violent duelling and age-group violence in Southern Ethiopia, bullfighting in Iberia, cattle rustling in Kenya, guerrilla and militia wars in Colombia, or public executions in China.These case studies suggest that 'violence' is not a simple, universal urge, but is contingent and context-dependent, shaped by social relations of power, force and dominance. To be the victim of violence is a humiliating and frightening experience. But the many ambiguities that occur in the use of violence must be considered, to understand why peace seems only to exist as a contrast to the violation of peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859734353
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/01/2000
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Göran Aijmer University of Gothenburg Jon Abbink Rijksuniversiteit Leiden

Table of Contents

Preface: Violation and Violence as Cultural Phenomena, Introduction: The Idiom of Violence in Imagery and Discourse 1 The Enigma of Senseless Violence 2 'Criminals by Instinct': On the 'Tragedy' of Social Structure and the 'Violence' of lndividual Creativity 3 Ritual, Violence and Social Order: An Approach to Spanish Bullfighting 4 Restoring the Balance: Violence and Culture Among the Suri of Southern Ethiopia 5 Tolerating the Intolerable: Cattle Raiding Among the Kuria of Kenya 6 Rethinking 'Violence' in Chinese Culture 7 Butchering Fish and Executing Criminals: Public Executions and the Meanings of Violence in Late Imperial and Modem China, 8 The 'Tradition of Violence' in Colombia: Material and Symbolic Aspects

Editorial Reviews

There is no doubt that this book (to which justice cannot be done in a brief review) will be seminal with regard to future research and debate.” —Anthropological Theory

“One of the most innovative collections of contributions to the discussion of violence in recent times ... an excellent resource [that] enriches the debate on the subject.” —The Global Review of Ethnopolitics

From the Publisher

One of the most innovative collections of contributions to the discussion of violence in recent times ... an excellent resource [that] enriches the debate on the subject.

The Global Review of Ethnopolitics

There is no doubt that this book (to which justice cannot be done in a brief review) will be seminal with regard to future research and debate.

Anthropological Theory