11/12/13Why Cant We Get Along (Chapter 8)1. Thinking Beyond Stratification2. Why Talk About Ethnic Conflicts/Cleansing and Genocide?a. Deserve more attentionb. Work against sanitized portrayedi. Playing down, under estimating the issuesii. Going against the “sanitized” is problematic because a sani-tized view does not have detail, no close up on the individual,doesn’t empathize, and doesn’t draw reader inc. Relevancei. What’s more relevant to why people slaughterd. Those who cant remember the past are condemned to repeat iti. Prevents the path to the futuree. What can anthropology contribute?i. Focuses on cross-cultural comparisons3. What a Worlda. Mass slaughter is where anthropologists can say somethingb. Cambodia: 1.7-2 million deadc. Guatemala: 200,000 deadd. Rwanda: 1 million deade. Bosnia: 250,000 dead4. Anthropological Silencea. “Too slow, too hesitant, too reflective and ethnographic knowledge, too local” – they haven’t said much about mass murdersi. After the fact is when anthropologists finally said something, but its already too lateb. Fear of Exacerbating Western Stereotypesi. Savagery and barbarism are taking anthropology to affec-tively dislargeii. Didn’t want to go back to a time where Europeans did not want to be seen as savages and barbaric peopleiii. Didn’t want to be judged if they wrote about itc. Outdated notion of cultural relativism (will not judge)i. Engaged in issues of genocideii. Inhibited anthropologists from studying genocideiii. They are historical values that shouldn’t be looked at without being seen as ethnocentricd. Theoretical Framework is guiding ethnographic researchi. Role of ideas and how it shapes ideas of how anthropolo-gists carry out their workii. Ideas influence what anthropologists see and hear as they carry out fieldwork1. Nuer (Sudan) – Evans Pritcharda. Interested in politics guided by ideas where he conceptually isolated the people from broader political context in which they were livingb. Talks about political conflicts within Nuer by talking in the broader context of Nuer being a British Colonyc. Talked about political strives of Nuer as well because he isolated themselves from the British Colony context2. Bali (Indonesia) – Clifford Geertza. Guided by the theoretical framework where he isolated people from the broader context (Cold War, military rule)b. Downplayed violence and conflictc. Described Bali people as “poised, controlled, declorious, and peaceful”d. Engulfed in Civil War after he left and thou-sands of people were killed5. What Can Anthropologists Do/Say That Might be Relevanta. Argue against a “culturalist spin” to bloodshedi. Violence/bloodshed = result of cultural differencesii. Anthropologists View: No reason why cultural differences should be the reason to cause mass murder, violence, and catastrophe1. Example: Rwanda & Tutsis v. Hutusa. Absence of systematic violence till the Euro-peans colonized themb. No reason why people with different cultural backgrounds can’t get alongiii. Importance of how conflicts are labeled1. (Ethnic conflict, religious conflict, political conflict…)b. Emphasize Contactsi. Socioeconomic upheavalsii. Unequal distribution of opportunities/privileges1. Documenting these an allow anthropologists to fore-see these opportunities for the future6. Commitment to an “Engaged Anthropology”a. Grow and develop anthropologists as human