violence
Violence Intrudes on the Piaroa
Illegal mining in south central Venezuela is fostering conflict and even some violence among the normally peaceful Piaroa people. A lengthy analysis in the publication Caracas Chronicles on June 4 provides a lot of details about the stresses the Piaroa are trying to cope with. The author, who is not named to protect his or […]
Congolese Warlord Arrested in Paris
One of the first news stories published by this website—on December 26, 2004—was a review of some very disturbing news about horrible abuses suffered by the Mbuti people in the D.R. Congo. After 16 years of very limited action to foster justice for the thousands of Mbuti victims, officials announced last week that one of […]
Violence in Rural Thailand Assessed [Journal article review]
According to a recent journal article, Rural Thai male adolescents are just as prone to feelings of anger and expressions of violence as their urban counterparts. The authors of the study, Wongtongkam et al (2016), wrote that the rate of violence seems to be increasing in Thailand, a serious cause for concern. In 2010, the […]
Piaroa React to Violence with Violence
On June 13th, the news media in Venezuela reported that violence had occurred in a Piaroa community: the famously peaceful people had burned a local post of the National Guard. The news reports provided somewhat conflicting details, but the basic ingredients of the story were consistent. El Universal, a major news source for the nation, […]
Peace and Nonviolence: Anthropological Aspects [a review]
In “Peace and Nonviolence: Anthropological Aspects,” Leslie Sponsel presents a concise and convincing argument for the persistence of nonviolent behavior throughout prehistory and history by providing numerous empirical examples from an anthropological perspective. Because of the inherent multidisciplinary approach anthropology provides, it creates the ideal framework from which to view peace and nonviolence in contrast […]
Conference on Violence and Promoting Peaceful Societies
Elizabeth Cashdan asks a profound question: “What evolutionary forces underlie human violence, and how can we use this knowledge to promote a more peaceful society?” According to a news story last Saturday in the Salt Lake Tribune, the University of Utah is hosting a conference this week which addresses those issues. Entitled “The Evolution of […]
Violence in Kashmir Causes Political Chaos
Over the past few weeks, six people have died, with hundreds injured, during the worst sectarian rioting in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in decades. While the rioting did not directly involve the Ladakhi people, the continuing sectarian clashes in the state foster a climate of strife and violence that affects everyone in […]
Violence in an Amish School
Fall shooting season in America took a horrifying turn on Monday morning when a deranged man shot and killed a number of Amish girls in a one-room schoolhouse. The 32 year old man, Charles Carl Roberts, IV, left suicide notes for his family, took three guns into a one-room Amish school near his home in […]
Peaceful Semai Compared to Violent Waorani
Scholarly articles that compare nonviolent peoples with violent ones can be among the most fascinating works about peaceful societies. These kinds of articles provide mirror images of peacefulness and violence that often foster reflections on the causes of peace. A 1992 article by Clayton and Carole Robarchek, added to the Archive of this website this […]
Guns, Violence, and Thai Robin Hoods [journal article review]
A recent historical study on the rise of violent crime in mid-20th century rural Thailand provides an interesting balance to the analysis of their non-confrontational Buddhist peacefulness by Phillips (1965). Chalong Soontravanich, who is on the history faculty of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, describes the lack of weapons available to villagers 100 years ago. A […]
