Culture in Armed Conflicts1 Final Session

Culture in Armed Conflicts2 Your prioritisation 1. Themes 2. Case studies 3. Course papers 4. General discussion

Culture in Armed Conflicts3 5. Other 1.Course paper requirements, when not writing about case studies 2.Comparing themes 3.Finding other references/resources 4.Evaluation 5.What are Jan & Jesper doing next?

Culture in Armed Conflicts4 Introduction 1.”Culture in Armed Conflict”? 2.The 4 Case Studies – themes 3.Other analytical points/ideas 4.General discussion

Culture in Armed Conflicts5 1. Introduction ”Culture in Armed Conflicts”?

Culture in Armed Conflicts6 Armed Conflicts Wars – dirty, small, new…

Culture in Armed Conflicts7 Picture removed: Aerial photo of trenches in World War I A classic image of war; infrastructure carved into the landscape etc. Link to photo: – nch-warfarehttp:// nch-warfare

Culture in Armed Conflicts8 Picture removed: Soldiers in trenches in World War I Link to photo: – nch-warfare

Culture in Armed Conflicts9 Picture removed: Aerial of Vietnamese jungle New kinds of battlefields; changing faces of what a war is Link to photo:

Culture in Armed Conflicts10 Removed picture: American soldiers in the Vietnam War New battlefields

Culture in Armed Conflicts11 Removed picture: German soldiers march in World War II Classic image of a soldier; recognizable; ordered, part of regiment etc.

Culture in Armed Conflicts12 Removed picture: child soldiers in West Africa New kinds of soldiers; no uniform; ”too young”; not in ordered regiments etc.

Culture in Armed Conflicts13 Armed Conflict War  armed conflict Conflict  armed conflict

Culture in Armed Conflicts14 Armed Conflict ”To us, all war … is long-term struggle organised for political ends, commonly but not always using violence. Neither the means nor the ends can be understood without reference to a specific social context” (Richards 2005:4)

Culture in Armed Conflicts15 Crisis and Chronicity Crisis in context  crisis as context

Culture in Armed Conflicts16 Armed Conflict ”… many wars are long periods of (uneasy) peace interrupted by occasional eruptions of violence … war is often a state of mind shared among participants” (Richards 2005:5)

Culture in Armed Conflicts17 Culture… The Pandora’s Box of Anthropology…

Culture in Armed Conflicts18 Culture… "Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Tylor 1958 [1871]:1)

Culture in Armed Conflicts19 Culture… ”…those abilities, notions and forms of behaviour persons have acquired as members of society” (Hylland-Eriksen 1995:3)

Culture in Armed Conflicts20 Culture… ”I find myself frequently troubled by the word culture as a noun but centrally attached to the adjectival form of the word, that is, cultural” (Appadurai 1996:12)

Culture in Armed Conflicts21 Chauveau & Richards (2008) ”Culture by itself causes nothing. Ethnic identity claims (and other cultural epiphenomena) are always products of organization, and competition among organization” (2008:546)

Culture in Armed Conflicts22 ”Anthropology has never had a distinct subject matter, and because it doesn't have a real method, there's a great deal of anxiety over what it is” Clifford Geertz

Culture in Armed Conflicts23 ”Anthropology is philosophy with people in” Tim Ingold

Culture in Armed Conflicts24 ”Culture in Armed Conflicts”? Actors Delimited field of inquiry Contextualisation Oriented towards the present Understand, not explain or predict

Culture in Armed Conflicts25 Shadows of War, Nordstrom ”… ethnography is an excellent way to study the invisibilities of power – invisibility that is in part constructed by convincing people not to study the shadows … Ethnography gives substance and site to all human endeavour, merely by caring about the day to day of human existence” (2004:15)

Culture in Armed Conflicts26 A Soldier Story, Ivana Macek Civilian Soldier Deserter

Culture in Armed Conflicts27 ”Cake or Death…?” Deconstructing conventional views

Culture in Armed Conflicts28 Removed video clip Anthropologists/academics not the only ones to deconstruct established perceptions Eddie Izzard on war, mass murder, colonialism, morality; funny, but achieves the same analytical distance to well-known historical figures and events – unsettles our conventional understandings Link:

Culture in Armed Conflicts29 2. The 4 Case Studies

Culture in Armed Conflicts30 Côte d’Ivoire

Culture in Armed Conflicts31 Côte d’Ivoire Political rhetoric Intergenerational relations Youth revolution? Life stories in the context of war Deconstructing political rhetoric (e.g. North/South divide) Politics of belonging – ”who is Ivorian?”

Culture in Armed Conflicts32 Your reflections Youth (in Africa; youth revolutions; youth politics) Ethnicity/identity politics (in relation to nationalism; citizenship; democratization) Xenophobic political rhetoric (in relation to immigration) Intergenerational tensions Relations between elites and the general population

Culture in Armed Conflicts33 Your reflections Colonial history the Global world order (globalisation) North/South distinctions in Côte d’Ivoire The characteristics of an armed conflict/war Land (Lack of) Media coverage Distinction between war/crisis in the Ivorian case

Culture in Armed Conflicts34 Colombia

Culture in Armed Conflicts35 Your reflections Oscar’s terminology –Faustian bargain –the phantasmagoria of cocaine cultivation –political economy of cocaine production –Marxian analysis, employing notions of primitive accumulation, revolution, capitalism, the exploitation of workers etc.

Culture in Armed Conflicts36 Your reflections Asking questions Comparative discussion Holistic view of armed conflict Understand rather than explain

Culture in Armed Conflicts37 Cambodia

Culture in Armed Conflicts38 Your reflections ”Genocide” –juridical term –The ”ethnicity” problem French colonialism Ritual outlets for frustration etc. Morality, politeness ’culturalist’ versus political-historical perspective

Culture in Armed Conflicts39 Jan’s comments I will agree with a critical comment that the early and colonial history perhaps took too much of our time, but at least it seems that my point about the importance of history got through I really object to the view that Khmer Rouge violence was either caused or motivated by specificities of Khmer culture – and this objection is shared by the majority of the Cambodian population, whether they have later come to be classified as victims or perpetrators

Culture in Armed Conflicts40 War on Terror

Culture in Armed Conflicts41 War on Terror ”Terrorism” after 9/11 Media representations (”us”, not ”them” as audience/receivers) Oil ”fight terror with terror?” Strict dichotomies ”Clash of Civilizations” (Huntington) Neoconservatives (triad?)

Culture in Armed Conflicts42 Iraq

Culture in Armed Conflicts43 Iraq Collapsed/failed/… state (who is the agent?) Orientalism; ”Arab culture” etc. Involvement of anthropology/anthropologists –Mercenary anthropology? –”win the hearts and minds of the natives”? Tribes, clans, family structures

Culture in Armed Conflicts44 Discussion: How do we write about all this?!

Culture in Armed Conflicts45 More analytical ideas Think about networks/connections –Utas’ molecule model –Vigh’s rhizomatic networks –Patron-client relationships Politicised belonging –Who is who? –Löfving’s movements

Culture in Armed Conflicts46 Resources and requirements Additional resources/literature –E-resources on DISA –E.g. JSTOR Writing on other cases?

Culture in Armed Conflicts47 What next?

Culture in Armed Conflicts48 Evaluations!