Political Anthropology Conflict Resolution

(These notes fall under the general topic of Political Processes which include choosing a leader, decision making, and conflict resolution.)

PLease study these and the case studies found in your photocopied notes. Thanks. Justin

POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
NOTES ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION
CLASS OF JUSTIN V. NICOLAS
2ND SEMESTER SY 2005-2006

RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT

PEACEFUL RESOLUTINO OF CONFLICT

avoidance – Violence can often be avoided if the parties to a dispute voluntarily avoid each other or are separated until emotions cool down.

community action – involves action by a group or the community as a whole; collective action is common in simpler societies that lack powerful authoritarian leaders.

negotiation – resoling disputes by coming to a settlement themselves

mediation – when an outsider or third party is brought in to help bring about settlement, but that third party does not have the formal authority to force a settlement. Both negotiation and mediation is likely when the society is relatively egalitarian and it is important for people to get along.

ritual reconciliation/ apology – based on deference of when the guilty party shows obeisance and asks forgiveness. Such ceremonies tend to occur in recent chiefdoms. (Fijian of the South Pacific- I soro or surrender)

oaths and ordeals – the act of calling upon a diety to bear witness to the truth of what one says; ordeal is a means used to determine guilt or innocence by submitting the accused to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under supernatural control. (ex. Rwala Bedouin)

adjudication, courts and codified laws

adjudication – when a third party acting as a judge makes a decision that the disputing parties have to accept. Judgement may be rendered by one person (judge), a panel of judges, a jury, or a political agent or agency (a chief, a royal personage, a council)

Courts are often open to an audience, but they need not be. Judges and courts may rely on codified law and stipulated punishments, but codified law is not necessary for decisions to be made. Our own society relies heavily on codified law and courts to resolve disputes peacefully, but courts often if not usually, rely on precedent – that is, the outcomes of previous, similar cases. (Western societies; Ashantis of West Africa)

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown- in small, closely knit communities there is little need for formal legal guidelines because competing interests are minimal. Hence, simple societies need little codified law.


VIOLENT RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT

individual violence – use of violent behavior to control behavior/ use of punishment (ex child violence)

feuding – (example of how individual self-help may not lead to a peaceful resolution of conflict) is a state of recurring hostilities between families or groups of kin, usually motivated by a desire to avenge an offense – whether insult, injury, deprivation, or death – against a member of the group. The most common characteristic of the feud is that responsibility to avenge is carried by all members of the kin group. The killing of any member of the offender’s group is considered appropriate revenge, because the kin group as a whole is regarded as responsible.

raiding – is a short-term use of force. Planned and organized, to realize a limited objective. This objective is usually the acquisition of goods, animals, or other forms of wealth belonging to another, often neighboring community; especially prevalent in pastoral societies, in which cattle, horses, camels, or other animals are prized and an individual’s own herd can be augmented by theft.

large-scale confrontations – involve a large number of persons and planning by both sides of strategies of attack and defense. Large scale warfare is usually practiced among societies with intensive agriculture or industrialization. Only these societies posses a technology sufficiently advanced to support specialized armies, military leaders, strategies, and so on. But large scale confrontations are not limited to state societies: They occur, for example, among the horticultural Dugum Dani of Central New Guinea.

warfare - in preindustrial times was caused by fear of expectable but unpredictable natural disasters (e.g. droughts, floods, locust infestations) that will destroy food resources. People think they can protect themselves against such disasters ahead of time by taking things from defeated enemies; most likely to occur in tribes and smaller societies than complex societies; relevant to political economy..