Violence and Power

Chagnon (1988) on the Yanomami people of Amazonia

-explains violence among the Yanomami as rooted in “modern evolutionary thought” where violence seen as a successful social strategy that increases fitness

-based on disincentivizing nature of the threat of revenge in regards to attack as well as the supposed increased societal attractiveness of violent men

-once Yanomami men have killed someone become unokai, argues associated with being waiteri/fierce

Problems with Chagnon (1988)

-violence seen as an essential element of the human condition and culture

-Yanomami portrayed as governed by no more than evolutionary desires like reproduction

-his influential work led anthropologists and the public alike to extrapolate racist Eurocentric theories of violence to non-Western populations worldwide

-used to justify prejudice and appropriation of Yanomami land

Albert’s reanalysis of Yanomami violence (Albert 1989)

-questions representative nature of Chagnon’s subjects to the greater Yanomami population which is over 22,500 people in two country

-linguistically and culturally distinct subgroups, violence among them varies

-unokai category not direct translation for killer, considered it if part of a raiding party and can apply to deaths by supernatural causes

-as a result Chagnon’s numbers may have been way off

-no clear association between being unokai and being waiteri/fierce

-accuses Chagnon as imposing Euroamerican ideologies regarding violence and sexual competition that place high esteem on military achievements

Modern nature of Yanomami violence (Ferguson 1999)

-reassessed conflict amongst the Yanomami and found that rather than ancient ‘blood revenge’ practices and sociobiological evolution related to antagonistic attempts to access or control trade of Western manufactured goods

-items like machetes, knives, axes, and shotguns considered very precious and preferentially available to those who live in outpost villages near Western institutions like missions

-reliance on outpost locations led to sedentism among outpost villages

-previously would move in cases of game scarcity or antagonism from neighbors, limiting conflict, now not the case, created heightened conflic and violence

Western portrayal of violence in Somalia (Besteman 1996)

-American media presented 1990 conflict in Somalia as result of mutually antagonistic Somali clans and tribes bound by ties of blood and kinship

-in reality conflict in Somalia based not on clans but other constructions of difference like race, language, status, occupation, and class, many of which are modern in nature

-could just as much be attributed to US interventionism in the form of aid and military technology to prop up Siyad Barre as to ancient tribal schisms

The Piaroa (Overing 1989)

-Amazonian group living along tributaries of the Orinoco in Venezuela, neighbors to the Yanomami

-condemn violence within their system of morality and their worldview

-equate good life and society as one characterized by tranquility and in which the individual is never coerced or subjected to violence

-adult member of the Piaroa expected to express moderation of their emotions and behavior, displays of excess like violent outbursts seen to immature and improper

-ruwang leader considered to be a great warrior and hunter because of his knowledge and thoughts rather than physical strength

-greatest hunters often become shamans, give it up altogether

-great degree of gender equality, woman and men seen as equals and expected to cooperate with one another

Public flogging in South Africa (Scheper-Hughes 1995)

-experienced a group of teenagers sentenced to public flogging for stealing the equivalent of about $125

-community did not want anyone to see the boys with their injuries for fear of police involvement

-Scheper-Hughes had a medical student examine them and took one of the boys to the hospital for infection and possible kidney damage

-as a result she was threatened by the community who was angry that she had interfered with their cultural practices of discipline

Scheper-Hughes (1995) on ethnographic morality

-advocated for a rejection of post-modern anthropological rhetoric of ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’

-instead argues for ethical approach to people’s practices and how they behave towards one another

-in her view the anthropologist always flawed and biased but should strive to serve as a morally committed witness

Trencher’s (1998) Critique of Scheper-Hugher (1995)

-problems and dilemmas that Scheper-Hughes claims are real

-however insufficient evidence of adequate ethnography

-’womanly-centred’ anthropology resulted in a maternal colonialism

-slid from intervention to interference, serious implications for anthropology

The Peace in the Feud (Gluckman 1955)

-among the Nuer: conflicts part of social life and custom appears to exacerbate these conflicts, but in doing so also restrains the conflicts from destroying wider social order

-no formal legal system, no judges or police, yet well established codes of conduct

-Nuer men have vengeance groups based on agnatic kinship, have to support their kin

-however disperse due to marriage, creates incentives to resolve conflict due to competing alliances

The Subject and Power (Foucault 1982)

-modern (liberal) state: at once objectifying and individualizing

-power consists of ability to modify the actions of others

-only exists when put into action, exists as a relation, an action upon actions (past and present)

-government: the conduct of conduct

-struggle (resistance) good diagnostic of power, can be no relationship of power without the potential for a strategy of struggle

-unstable relationship between forces of power and struggles against them

Normal exploitation, normal resistance (Scott 1985)

-everyday forms of peasant resistance usually far short of collective outright defiance

-incl foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, etc

-require little to no coordination or planning, form of individual self-help, avoid direct confrontation with authority

-not limited to peasantry: commonly used by officials and landlords against the state

-action of peasantry changes or narrows policy options available to the state

Oppressive nature of Italian Immigration System (Maculan 2021)

-process for applying for asylum lengthy and depersonalizing

-social and spatial segregation inside various reception centers dotted around the country

-can make asylum seekers feel inert, disempowered, infantilized, and subjugated through cramped living conditions, constant surveillance

-legal system treats asylum seekers as liars because unable to meet standards of credibility

Everyday resistance to Italian asylum process (Maculan 2021)

-making curtains out of clothes on bunk beds in shared rooms in reception centers

-forging documents that are impossible to get, changing their stories (aided by lawyers and interpreters)

-oppositional attitude, negotiations, sabotage, and outright refusals to things like psychiatric evaluation

State monopoly on Violence (Weber in Anter 2019)

-Weber defines the state as a political institution that claims successfully on the monopoly of violence

-monopoly as the decisive criterion which distinguishes the modern occidental state from all other historical forms of domination

-result of long-term process in which the local olders of power were expropriated by a central force

Critique of Weber (Anter 2019)

-today monopoly increasingly endangered, doesn’t exist in many parts of the world

-monopoly should not be seen as complete, have always been gaps in monopoly, has to be constantly asserted and enforced

-today many states form supranational communities to which they assign parts of their sovereign rights