Suchergebnisse

Deadly Developments: Capitalism, States and War. S. P. Reyna and R. E. Downs. eds. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1999. 282 pp.

Demi Moore never perspired in the movie "G.I. Jane", she sweated. And she had to do so in order to convey how much work was involved in becoming the first female member of a combat-oriented Special Operations team. No woman currently serves in such a unit. But what Moore's performance suggests is that if only the right female were given the opportunity to prove her ability to meet the same physical standards as the military's most elite combat soldiers, then even these men would have to grant her their grudging respect. She would belong, and presumably pave the way for other gritty women.

This article explores two very different, yet related, sets of reasons to help explain the absence of widespread identity-based communal violence in the US. First, Americans can afford to treat identity situationally, & only recently have they begun to bump up against the outer limits of who it can be agreed the state should protect. Secondly, the government has proved increasingly vigilant in its response to separatist groups that pledge their primary allegiance to themselves rather than the state, & who by doing so invite the use of force. Adapted from the source document.

Simons reviews 'The Military and Conflict Between Cultures: Soldiers at the Interface' edited by James C. Bradford.

▪ Abstract  War is a fraught subject. Those who study it often fight about it. This chapter examines the current state of the study of war, described and analyzed by anthropologists and nonanthropologists who employ concepts like culture in writing about the future of war. Warfare seems bound to keep us revisiting certain aspects of the past. At the same time, nothing induces change quite like conflict. Does war have a future? The preponderance of evidence—biological, archeological, ethnological—suggests that it does. But not all anthropologists agree. This in and of itself represents one of a series of gaps that begs further consideration.