Ethnological theories on violence

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There are in the Ethnology various ethnological theories of violence , because the concept of violence is controversial and there is no universal and unambiguous definition. The ethnology of violence is a young area of ​​research, and extensive theories have only been developed since the 1940s. According to Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois , until well into the 20th century, many ethnologists avoided investigating ethnic or indigenous forms of violence in order not to strengthen the prejudice of the primitiveness and brutality of indigenous peoples through their analysis .

Ethnological approaches can be based on an etic or emic approach. A cross- cultural study can be carried out in the case of an ethical approach, which is characterized by an analysis against the background of western-style scientific concepts . An emic approach, on the other hand, tries to represent the phenomenon of violence with the respective culture-specific terms and concepts.

The social role of acts of violence in different cultural contexts, their culture-specific causes and conditions as well as the different conceptions of violence depending on the culture are central questions of the research.

Important topics in the ethnological study of violence are nationality , ethnicity , revenge , rumor and gossip (rumors and gossip), alcohol consumption , religion , aggressiveness , warfare , suicide , witchcraft , the structural effects of violence and non-violence .

A distinction is made between structural violence , symbolic violence and physical violence. The latter includes a relatively narrow definition of violence that is based on intended physical damage. Nevertheless, even against the background of a narrow definition, different perspectives and assessments of one and the same feat of strength can open up. David Riches , one of the most important representatives of the ethnology of violence, takes up this perspective difference on the subject of violence in his theory of the triangle of violence consisting of perpetrator, victim and witness from 1986. According to this, the definition of violence ultimately depends on the judgment of those involved.

Riches' declaration focuses on phenomenological and action-motivating aspects of violence. In addition, there are now a large number of theories that consider violent acts in their historical context. Both preconditions and consequences of acts of violence are examined.

Narrative approaches tend to explain reasons for violence, to legitimize them and thus ultimately to motivate people to exercise violence.

Furthermore, a distinction is made between individual and collective violence. If violence is examined in relation to the individual, the focus is on the subjective experience . In the case of collective violence, the consequences of a social act perceived as violent are decisive.

Violence theories

David Riches

David Riches' concept of the "triangle of violence" from 1986 is considered to be one of the first more detailed approaches to theorising of violence within ethnology . His approach is phenomenological and the definition of violence on which it is based is narrow. Riches understands violence as "an act of physical hurt deemed legitimate by the performer and illegitimate by (some) witnesses" (an act of inflicting physical pain that is considered legitimate by the perpetrator and illegitimate by (some) witnesses). The triangle of violence understands violence as an act that consists of three actors: a perpetrator, a victim and a witness. The different perception and evaluation of these actors of one and the same force act leads to the fact that ultimately the evaluation of those affected defines the act as violent or not. Physical violence thus has the character of an interpretive ambiguity. Another point in Riche's approach are four characteristics of violence that he worked out, which make it a “social and cultural resource”: Violence would always run the risk of being questioned in terms of its legitimacy , violence as such is seldom misunderstood, the use of force is highly visible to the senses, and it takes little but the strength of the human body to cause effective harm to anyone. In view of these assumptions, violence can become a highly efficient instrument for asserting interests and achieving goals. Riches assumes that people, despite always available alternatives, tend towards a violent solution and describes violence as a "strategy which is basic to the experience of social interaction" (strategy which is fundamental for the experience of social interaction).

Abbink and Ajmer

The theoretical references made by Jon Abbink and Göran Ajmer in their book Meanings of Violence , published in 2000 , take into account a variety of influences, but focus primarily on communication and its accompanying symbolic meaning, as it is in the Religion and in ritual. Abbink emphasizes that violence is a matter of communicative acts that gain in importance due to their symbolic power. Aijmer divides the imagined, discursive and ethological order . He sees this classification as crucial for explaining violence in different societies.

Schroeder and Schmidt

In their 2001 book Anthropology of Violence and Conflict , Ingo W. Schroeder and Bettina E. Schmidt distinguish between operational, cognitive and experimental approaches to the investigation of violence in the field of tension between imagined violence and violent practice . The operational approach focuses on objective and political reasons, the cognitive one on cultural constructions and the experimental one on subjective feelings in connection with violence. As a result of this classification, an omnipresent theoretical scope for action opens up. Schroeder and Schmidt add that there must be an idea of ​​what constitutes violence, so that certain actions can even be carried out and interpreted as such.

Stewart and Strathern

Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern differentiate between functional and symbolic violence. Functional violence refers to law and order related to reciprocal violence. In the analytical style of postmodern theories, symbolic violence searches for the subjective experiences and cultural meanings associated with violence. Associations between the idea of ​​revenge and legal systems come to the fore in her analysis of ethnographic data.

Erwin Orywal

Erwin Orywal (1949–2019), a representative of cognitive ethnology, examines cultural dispositions in relation to the proximate cause of individual or collective use of violence. He assumes an individual potential for aggression in humans, which is shaped to the extent by the respective culture, and advocates the thesis that “violent conflict resolution strategies are conceptualized in the cultural systems of belief”. Members of a culture act on the basis of evaluations which empirically manifest themselves as values ​​and norms or beliefs or ideals in a culture. From this it follows, according to Orywal: "The more positive a cognitive-emotive justification of individually or collectively violent action and the more likely this action is assessed for the realization of the desired consequences, the greater the likelihood that an appropriate action will be taken."

Examples of values ​​and beliefs legitimizing violence are, according to Orywal, ideals of masculinity, ideals of warriors and heroes, images of the enemy or friend-enemy schemes. In addition, he attaches great importance to the existence of a structural war ability (e.g. professional warrior): "The more comprehensive a structural war ability is designed in a society, the more likely is a positive justification for the use of warlike (defense or attack) Violence". However, he makes it clear that there can be no organized use of violence without a mental readiness to use violence.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes

Nancy Scheper-Hughes deals primarily with structural and political violence in her work. The focus is on the one hand on the “small wars and invisible genocides” (small wars and invisible genocides ), which represent the interface between public and covert violence, and on the other hand on the “violence of everyday life” (everyday violence). Everyday violence is understood as implicitly legitimized violence in certain state formations and social institutions such as the household.

Together with Philippe Bourgois, she also coined the term violence continuum , "which includes all kinds of social exclusion, dehumanization, depersonalization, pseudo-speciation and any objectification that normalizes cruel behavior towards others". Pseudo-speciation was coined by Erik Erikson and describes the classification of certain human groups as subhumans, i.e. less than "normal" people.

Veena Das

Turning to empiricism, the Indian scientist Veena Das notes that a purely theoretical mechanical distinction between instrumental or physical violence and expressive or symbolic violence leads the analyst away from the actual meaning of violence and thus from the consequences for the individual or the community . In line with Franco Basaglia's concept of peace-time crimes , she sees violence not as an interruption of the normal state, but rather as an implication of the ordinary.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nancy Scheper-Hughes , N. Bourgois, Philippe Bourgois (Eds.): Violence in War and Peace (An Anthology). In: Blackwell Readers in Anthropology. Volume 5, Blackwell, Malden 2005, p. 6.
  2. ^ A b G. Elwert: Socianthropologically explained violence. International Handbook of Violence Research. W. Heitmeyer and G. Albrecht. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, pp. 336–337.
  3. ↑ Note: Was discussed extensively by Paul Farmer, Philippe Bourgois and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, although the term was originally coined by the political scientist Johan Galtung ; compare Nancy Scheper-Hughes, N. Bourgois, Philippe Bourgois (eds.): Violence in War and Peace (An Anthology). In: Blackwell Readers in Anthropology. Volume 5, Blackwell, Malden 2005.
  4. ↑ Schmidt 2001, p. 6: "Symbolic dimension of violence may also backfire against its perpetrators and make it contestable on a discursive level not as a physical but as a performative act"; Bourdieu: Symbolic Violence. 1977: "[...] inherent but unrecognized violence that is maintained and naturalized within systems of inequality and domination." Quoted in: Antonius CGM Robben, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco: Cultures Under Siege. Collective Violence and Trauma in Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York 2000, p. 249.
  5. ↑ David Riches (Ed.): The Anthropology of Violence. Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 1986, ISBN 0-631-14788-8 , pp. ??.
  6. ↑ Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern: Violence - Theory and Ethnography. Continuum, London a. a. 2002, p. 10.
  7. ↑ Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern: Violence - Theory and Ethnography. Continuum, London a. a. 2002, p. 152.
  8. ^ Bettina E. Schmidt , Ingo W. Schroeder : Anthropology of Violence and Conflict. Routledge, London 2001, p. 18 (European Association of Social Anthropologists).
  9. ^ A b Andrew Strathern, Pamela J. Stewart: Violence. Conceptual considerations and the evaluation of actions. In: polylog. Forum for intercultural philosophy e. V. Tübingen, October 2003, accessed on July 12, 2014.
  10. ↑ David Riches (Ed.): The Anthropology of Violence. Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 1986, ISBN 0-631-14788-8 , p. 8.
  11. ↑ David Riches (Ed.): The Anthropology of Violence. Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 1986, ISBN 0-631-14788-8 , p. 11.
  12. ↑ David Riches (Ed.): The Anthropology of Violence. Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 1986, ISBN 0-631-14788-8 , p. 26.
  13. ↑ Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern: Violence - Theory and Ethnography. Continuum, London a. a. 2002, p. 159.
  14. ↑ Jon Abbink , Göran Ajmer : Meanings of Violence. A cross-cultural perspective. Berg, Oxford 2000, p. Xii.
  15. ↑ Jon Abbink, Göran Ajmer: Meanings of Violence. A cross-cultural perspective. Berg, Oxford 2000, pp. 3-4.
  16. ^ Bettina E. Schmidt, Ingo W. Schroeder: Anthropology of Violence and Conflict. Routledge, London 2001, p. 1.
  17. ^ Bettina E. Schmidt, Ingo W. Schroeder: Anthropology of Violence and Conflict. Routledge, London 2001, p. 9.
  18. ↑ Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern: Violence - Theory and Ethnography. Continuum, London a. a. 2002, p. 5.
  19. ↑ Note: The following authors also address everyday and subjective experiences of violence: Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman, Margaret Lock, Mamphela Ramphele and Pamela Reynolds.
  20. ↑ a b Erwin Orywal : War or Peace: A comparative study of culture-specific ideals - the civil war in Balochistan / Pakistan. In: Koelner Ethnologische Mitteilungen. Volume 13, Reimer, Berlin 2002, p. 41.
  21. ↑ a b Erwin Orywal: War or Peace: A comparative study of culture-specific ideals - the civil war in Balochistan / Pakistan. In: Koelner Ethnologische Mitteilungen. Volume 13, Reimer, Berlin 2002, p. 39.
  22. ↑ Erwin Orywal: War or Peace: A Comparative Study of Culture-Specific Ideals - the Civil War in Balochistan / Pakistan. In: Koelner Ethnologische Mitteilungen. Volume 13, Reimer, Berlin 2002, p. 37.
  23. ^ Nancy Scheper-Hughes: Small Wars. The Cultural Politics of Childhood. University of California Press, Berkeley 2008, pp. ??.
  24. ^ Nancy Scheper-Hughes: Death Without Weeping. The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. University of California Press, Berkeley 1993, pp. ??.
  25. ^ Antonius CGM Robben, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco: Cultures Under Siege. Collective Violence and Trauma in Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York 2000, p. 250.
  26. ^ Nancy Scheper-Hughes, N. Bourgois, Philippe Bourgois (Eds.): Violence in War and Peace (An Anthology). In: Blackwell Readers in Anthropology. Volume 5, Blackwell, Malden 2005, p. 21.
  27. ^ Veena Das : The Anthropology of Violence and the Speech of Victims. In: Anthropology Today. Volume 3, No. 4, 1987, pp. 11-13.
  28. ^ Nancy Scheper-Hughes, N. Bourgois, Philippe Bourgois (Eds.): Violence in War and Peace (An Anthology). In: Blackwell Readers in Anthropology. Volume 5, Blackwell, Malden 2005, p. 20.
  29. ^ Veena Das: Life and Words. Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary . University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, pp. ??.