Peace and War: Cross-cultural Perspectives / Edition 1

by Mary LeCron Foster

Overview

Is war necessary? In Peace and War prominent anthropologists and other social scientists explore the cultural and social factors leading to war. They analyze the covert causes of war from a cross-cultural perspective: ideologies that dispose people to war; underlying patterns of social relationships that help institutionalize war; and the cultural systems of military establishments. Overt causes of war—environmental factors like the control of scarce resources, advantageous territories, and technologies, or promoting the wel-fare of people "like" oneself—are also considered.

The authors examine anthropologists' role in policy formation—how their theories on the nature of culture and society help those who deal with global problems on a day-to-day basis. They argue that both covert and overt mechanisms are pushing the world closer to a devastating war and offer strategies to weaken the effects of these mechanisms. This anthropological and historical analysis of the causes of war is a valuable resource for those studying war and those trying to understand the place of social science in framing pacific options.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780887386190
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/30/1986
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary LeCron Foster is research associate in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Part I The Individual, Community, and Conflict 1. Personal Motivation and Institutionalized Conflict 2. The Uses of Fear: Porro Gangs in Mexico 3. Toward a Structural Model of Violence: Male Initiation Rituals and Tribal Warfare 4. Fighting for Peace 5. The Culture of United States Military Enclaves 6. Is War Necessary? 7. The Cultural Patterning of Risk-Seeking Behavior: Implications for Armed Conflict Part II The Dynamics of Conflict 8. Land Disputes and the Gods in the Prehispanic Mixteca 9. Directed Change and the Hope for Peace 10. Ethnic Targeting as a Defense Strategy 11. Conflict in the Horn of Africa 12. Christianity and War Part III Social Scientists React 13. Sociopsychological Aspects of the Prevention of Nuclear War 14. The Drift to War 15. The War-Making Institutions 16. The Nature of War and the American Military Profession 17. War and Peace: The View of a Soviet Scholar Part IV Conflict and the Nation-State 18. Ideology and Institutions in Peace and War 19. War and War Proneness in Pre- and Postindustrial States 20. The Developmental Dynamics of Peace 21. The Anthropology of Global Integration: Some Grounds for Optimism about World Peace 22. The Superpowers and the Tribes Part V Anthropology and Policy 23. Anthropology for the Second Stage of the Nuclear Age 24. Anthropology as a Nonpolicy Science 25. Global Policy and Revolution in Social Sciences 26. Conflict and Belief in American Foreign Policy 27. The Collapse of Strategy: Understanding Ideological Bias in Policy Decisions Conclusion: Toward an Anthropology of Peace and War About the Contributors