Conflict and Reconstruction in Multiethnic Societies Proceedings of a Russian-American Workshop (2003) / Chapter Skim
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The Anthropology of Collective Violence
The Anthropology of Collective Violence
Pages 55-62
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From page 55... ...
For example, almost all the revolutions of the twentieth century, both social and national-liberational in nature, have not only not led to overcoming the economic backwardness of their states as the revolutionaries had planned, but also, as a rule, have further exacerbated the economic situation. The very humanistic ideals toward which they seemingly sincerely strove in the course of their struggle for power at times were transformed into unprecedented violence perpetrated by the new power structure against its own population.
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From page 56... ...
Current ethnographic materials on the Caucasus clearly attest to the fact that the institution of blood feud still exists in its initial form both as a regulator of the use of violence and as a motive for initiating violent actions. An example of the preservation of vengeance as an institution in postindustrial society and, furthermore, its ability to determine the behavior of its members is the tragic events of September 11 in the United States and the actions that followed in response.
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From page 57... ...
This would lead to a conflict of various legal systems, with Western law on the one side and legal views based on archaic values on the other. American laws naturally rule out blood feuds as a legal action, and if bin Laden were to find himself in the hands of justice, he would have to be tried according to American laws.
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From page 58... ...
In this instance, a youth subculture seized all of society, and war became the main enterprise of its members. Presumably, an analogous situation has developed in many regions of the world where prolonged interethnic or social conflicts have been observed, with armed adolescents representing their main driving force.
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From page 59... ...
The stability of the political regimes in these states depends on the ability of the ruling powers to ensure the social growth of young people and define the vector of their violent strivings. In the USSR, where a youth subculture reigned, all socioeconomic life abounded in violent symbols of "taming the virgin lands," "battling for the harvest," and "conquering outer space." International sports took the form of a virtual "war against the capitalist system." Not only urgent "shock" construction projects but also local wars (Afghanistan)
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From page 60... ...
In other words, a return to archaic cultural strata occurs under conditions of emotional upheaval, which leads to the activation of more ancient cultural strata. At the same time, in peripheral societies in which the value of human life is determined not on the basis of developed social individualism but rather in connection with various sorts of collective and religious conceptions, similar actions by a subject with regard to an object could be both justified and encouraged by the socium.
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From page 61... ...
For example, if classical Marxism understands the liquidation of the capitalist class as the deprivation of their rights to private property, then in Russia this process took the form of the physical elimination of property owners. Sociopolitical practice attests to the fact that it was the peripheral intelligentsia that was the yeast that spurred the rise of mass violence in developing states; they headed all social and national revolutions in the twentieth century.
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From page 62... ...
Being religious in its content, the traditional mentality not only easily absorbs ideas of world religions but also adapts Western political-cultural values in accordance with its own inherent algorithm of mental activity. As a result, these values necessarily acquire all the signs of religiosity, including its inherent conceptions on life and death.
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