The Practice of War : Production, Reproduction and Communication of Armed Violence

__The fact is that war comes in many guises and its effects continue to be felt long after peace is proclaimed. This challenges the anthropologists who write of war as participant observers. Participant observation inevitably deals with the here and now, with the highly specific. It is only over the long view that one can begin to see the commonalities that emerge from the different forms of conflict and can begin to generalize.__ **[From the Introduction]** More needs to be understood about the ways of war and its effects. What implications does war have for people, their lived-in communities and larger political systems; how do they cope and adjust in war situations and how do they deal with the changed world that they inhabit once peace is declared? Through a series of essays that move from looking at the nature of violence to the peace processes that follow it, this important book provides some answers to these questions. It also analyzes those new dimensions of social interaction, such as the internet, which now provide a bridge between local concerns and global networks and are fundamentally altering the practices of war. CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS PREFACE INTRODUCTION THE PRACTICE OF WAR PART I CHANGING QUALITIES OF VIOLENCE: CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA CHAPTER 1 ‘WE TURNED OUR ENEMIES INTO BABOONS’: WARFARE, RITUAL AND PASTORAL IDENTITY AMONG THE POKOT OF NORTHERN KENYA CHAPTER 2 CULTURE SLIPPING AWAY: VIOLENCE, SOCIAL TENSION AND PERSONAL DRAMA IN SURI SOCIETY, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA CHAPTER 3 CATHOLICS AND CANNIBALS: TERROR AND HEALING IN TOORO, WESTERN UGANDA PART II MEMORY, TRAUMA AND REDEMPTION CHAPTER 4 COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER: THE HERERO OF NAMIBIA, 1904–1940 CHAPTER 5 TRAUMA, THERAPY AND RESPONSIBILITY: PSYCHOLOGY AND WAR IN CONTEMPORARY ISRAEL CHAPTER 6 ‘I SHALL BE WAITING FOR YOU AT THE DOOR OF PARADISE’: THE PAKISTANI MARTYRS OF THE LASHKAR-E TAIBA (ARMY OF THE PURE) PART III ORGANIZING, ENCOURAGING AND DISSUADING: THE USES OF KINSHIP, GENDER AND RELIGION CHAPTER 7 IS WAR GENDERED? ISSUES IN REPRESENTING WOMEN AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR CHAPTER 8 JUDGING BY AESTHETICS: ‘DUE CARE’ IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ‘COLLABORATION’ IN THE FIRST PALESTINIAN INTIFADA CHAPTER 9 ISLAMIST MILITANCY IN KASHMIR: THE CASE OF THE LASHKAR-E TAIBA PART IV THE INSCRIPTION OF WAR IN MEDIATED WORLDS CHAPTER 10 IN THE COMBAT ZONE CHAPTER 11 ‘VIRTUAL’ DISCOURSE AND THE CREATION AND DISRUPTION OF SOCIAL NETWORKS: OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAR IN KASHMIR IN CYBERSPACE CHAPTER 12 MARTYRS, VICTIMS, FRIENDS AND FOES: INTERNET REPRESENTATIONS BY PALESTINIAN ISLAMISTS CHAPTER 13 MAPPING A CONFLICT IN CYBERSPACE: CHIAPAS ON THE WWW PART V PEACE BUILDING AT THE CROSSROADS: APPROPRIATIONS OF WAR, AMBIVALENCES OF INTEREST CHAPTER 14 VIOLENCE AND PEACE PROCESSES INDEX This book offers an important contribution to a better understanding of the specific and the general in wartime. It examines how people cope and adjust to situations of war, depending upon whether these are low-intensity or high-intensity ones, on whether they are brief phases of conflict or long enduring periods of violence, with or without intermittent spells of peace. Of particular interest is the exploration of a largely new dimension of social interaction - that of the internet, thus providing a bridge between local concerns and global networks