Violence, society and the State in Eastern Indonesia: context

Abstract

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The idea of putting violence into a social and historical context has been the recent concern of a number of anthropologists writing about headhunting traditions in Southeast Asia (eg George 1996; Hoskins 1996; Rosaldo, M. 1980; Rosaldo, R. 1980; Tsing 1993). These accounts point to the interweaving of historical events and social practices, and the many effects of this entanglement. Moreover, they also examine how local histories of violence compete with other discursive forms and thus represent "contested cultural resources" (George 1996:11). What is clear from these accounts is that violence has a more endemic social purpose and constitutive cultural meaning than is often acknowledged by Western commentators.