ABSTRACT
This chapter is an anthropological reflection on inter-personal violence and its social and psychological roots in a small-scale African society. Anthropology by convention works from local-level empirical studies to explore the nature of diversity and similarity in human behaviour, usually on the assumptions that humans function on the basis of similar and comparable psycho-biological traits, and that socio-cultural conditions are decisive in determining how and to what extent these traits are expressed. The following discussion is based on my observation of a non-industrial, agro-pastoral society in southern Ethiopia, and on the conviction that not only social and historical conditions but also culture and psychology are important to understand constructions and practices of violence. The case to be discussed has no direct similarity to the many headline-making armed conflicts of a more political nature, as found in, e.g., Sierra Leone, Somalia, ex-Zaire, Angola, Indonesia or Burma. Similar, however, to other persistent situations of violence across the globe, the Suri1 case underlines that an understanding of cultural backgrounds and commitments of the people who fight is essential. As Paul Richards has shown in his recent book on the Sierra Leone war (1996), we ignore the local cultural narratives and meanings that inform the participants at the peril of misunderstanding the nature and extent of violence. In this chapter, I will also claim that in itself the cultural perspective needs to be augmented with a theory of human behaviour and motivation. Asserting that violence is ‘culturally constructed’ only serves as explanation up to a certain point. The underlying rationality of violent performance, either seen in an instrumental or in a cognitive way (relating it to world views or cultural representations)2 is also
conditioned by the concern of humans with reproduction and social success.
