beliefs that foster peacefulness
Frog Woman and Her Moral Code [anthology chapter review]
The Chewong believe that their forest is composed not only of humans but of a wide range of sentient beings, all of which live by rules that prescribe correct behavior. Their myths, songs, and stories describe their forest world, the ways they understand it, and how those understandings develop the rules that guide the behavior […]
Rules for Maintaining a Peaceful Society [journal article review]
In 1977, a tree fell during an evening thunderstorm on a Chewong camp in a central Malay Peninsula forest, killing and injuring several people. Anthropologist Signe Howell arrived shortly after the tragedy had occurred, but the Chewong dismissed her thought that it was bad luck for them—they had no conceptions of good or bad fortune. […]
Chewong Peacefulness Despite Social Changes [anthology chapter review]
The Chewong of Malaysia experience, or at least they used to experience, absolutely no violence within their society. They see themselves as peaceful and timid, people without leaders, individuals who forage for their needs in the forests. In contrast, they view others, primarily neighboring Malays and Chinese, as violent, fearless, powerful, demanding and angry, people […]
Lecture about Hutterites at E-town College
The Hutterites will be the subject of the annual Durnbaugh Lectures on Thursday evening, April 19th, and the following day, Friday April 20th, at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, part of Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The distinguished speaker, Prof. Rod Janzen, will present a talk Thursday evening entitled “The Hutterites in 2012.” […]
New Paliyan Blog Post
A new post on a Paliyan blog last week proudly described the peaceful structures in their society, but it warned that their peacefulness, combined with their shyness, has increased their vulnerability to being exploited by corrupt outsiders. Using the pluralized form of their name from the Tamil language—one Paliyan, many Paliyar—the new post claims proudly […]
Summary of Evidence for Peaceful Societies [Panel Presentations, part 3]
Papers by Kirk Endicott and Alberto Gomes, reviewed here in recent weeks, represented only part of the richness of information about peaceful societies available at a panel session of the American Anthropological Association in Montreal last month. Rather than continue to review the nine additional papers, all of which were quite insightful, it might be […]
Center for Global Nonkilling [Panel Presentations, part 1]
Kirk Endicott delivered an engrossing paper that described the nature of Batek nonviolence, plus the conditions that foster it, at a panel session on Wednesday evening, November 16th, in Montreal. His presentation was part of the program “Challenging the Legacy of Innate Depravity: The New Tidemarks of the Nonkilling Paradigm,” held as part of the […]
Fipa Vitality
Last Friday, AllAfrica.com, an important source of news about Africa, carried a story about the cultural diversity of the Rukwa Region of Tanzania, particularly the Fipa people—or Wafipa, as they are also called. An article by Willis (1989a) indicated that finger millet (Eleusine coracana) was the primary staple crop of the Fipa, but according to […]
Values for Peace [journal article review]
An intriguing journal article last fall examined the Semai of Peninsular Malaysia and the Mardu of Western Australia in the light of values theory to search for the structures, attitudes and relationships that help form peaceful societies. Marta Miklikowska and Douglas P. Fry came to some interesting conclusions after examining the two societies. The authors, […]
Hutterite Heritage of Peace
The story of the Hutterites is told briefly and simply in a current magazine article prepared for school children who are learning to tolerate others, an essential ingredient in counteracting hatred and violence. The recent issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine, fall 2010, number 38, points out in the article “A War on the Peaceful” that […]
