Anthropology of Violence: Historical and Current Theories, Concepts, and Debates in Physical and Socio-cultural Anthropology

Abstract

This literature review describes the theoretical contributions of physical and socio-cultural anthropology to an understanding of violence, based on the common themes expressed by founders of anthropology that are still visible in today's post-modern anthropological concepts and theories. The review focuses on three distinct eras: founding theories and concepts (1880s–1940s); modern theories and concepts (1950s–1970s); and post-modern theories and concepts (1980s to the present). Though anthropologists have been accused of maintaining or perpetrating violence themselves due to theoretical and methodological trends, new post-modern concepts have moved toward integrated theories of violence that encourage an activist anthropologist and incorporate concepts such as globalization and colonialism. The review concludes with a conceptual map.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropology
• violence
• theory