Department of social anthropology seminar with Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern

The Department of Social Anthropology has the pleasure to invite you to the first seminar of the semester. Professor Andrew Strathern and Dr.
Pamela J. Stewart will present the following paper:

"Aesthetics and Dynamics of Violence and Peace: Beyond the Triangle"

Abstract
This paper is an exploration of ranges of theorizing and discussingviolence and peace, taking off from David Riches' model of the triangleof violence outlined in his edited volume on the Anthropology ofViolence and its development in our book on Violence (2002, Stewart andStrathern). The triangular model has a geometric cast to it, and weconsider the contrasting approaches to order and disorder in the ideasattributed to Pythagoras and Heraclitus in ancient Greek writings,before moving on to introduce our own alternative processual models ofthe arrow and the vortex of violence, which may alternate with periodsof peace. Drawing on images from the Papua New Guinea Highlands, wecontrast aesthetic constructions of peace with those of violenceexpressed by the arrow metaphor.  We examine the positions on violenceand exchange proposed by Jean Baudrillard and Georges Bataille, andrelate these back to a discussion of sacrifice, the expenditure ofwealth, and relations with the ancestors.  We also draw into our orbitthe work of Walter Benjamin and his concerns with the justification ofviolence in terms of political philosophy. Benjamin himself, in hisCritique of Violence, asked whether peaceful means of settling conflictare possible; but his affirmative answer to this question relates onlyto the interpersonal realm.  By contrast, in the Papua New GuineaHighlands, peace is politically engineered through the same idiomaticways that friendship is established between persons, but springs fromviolent acts that must specifically be paid for by acts of compensation:  reciprocity rules. We use our concept of 'Now Time' to contextualizethe import of our argument in relation to the creation of aesthetic lifespaces.

Bionote
Dr. Pamela J. Stewart (Strathern) and Prof. Andrew Strathern are a wifeand husband research team with a long history of joint publications andresearch. They are based in the Department of Anthropology, Universityof Pittsburgh and have been Visiting Research Fellow and VisitingProfessor, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham; VisitingResearch Fellows in the Research Institute of Irish and ScottishStudies, University of Aberdeen; and have been Visiting ResearchFellows, at the Institute of Ethnology, Academic Sinica, Taipei, Taiwanover many years. They have also lived and worked in Japan, Australia,New Zealand, and the Netherlands and presented lectures in manycountries around the world They have published many books and articleson their research in the Pacific region, especially in Papua New Guinea;and in Europe (primarily Scotland and Ireland); and in Asia (mainly inTaiwan and China). Their research interests are wide ranging, includingAnthropology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies. They are the editors ofthe Ritual Studies Book Series, the Medical Anthropology Book Series,and the European Anthropology Series with Carolina Academic Press andthe Anthropology and Cultural History in Asia and the Indo-Pacific withAshgate Publishing.  They are also the long-standing Co-Editors of theJournal of Ritual Studies. They have jointly published over 40 books andover 175 articles.  Their coauthored books include: Violence (ContinuumPublishing, 2002); Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip (CambridgeUniversity Press, 2004); Empowering the Past, Confronting the Future(Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); Kinship in Action: Self and Group (PrenticeHall, 2011) and Protracted Conflicts and the Imagination of Peace-Making(Strathern and Stewart, in press, University of Queensland Press). Theirco-edited books include: Terror and Violence: Imagination and theUnimaginable (Pluto Press, 2006, with N. L. Whitehead) Asian RitualSystems: Syncretisms and Ruptures (Carolina Academic Press, 2007);Exchange and Sacrifice (Carolina Academic Press, 2008); Religious andRitual Change (Carolina Academic Press, 2009, [Chinese Version, LinkingPublishing, 2010]); and Ritual (Ashgate Publishing, 2010,). Frequently,they are invited international speakers, discussing their currenttheoretical perspectives.  In 2012 they have been jointly awarded the DeCarle Lectureship (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) to presenta series of public lectures on topics, including peace-making. Many oftheir books and essays are available in electronic versions.  A list oftheir recent writings can be found here.


All interested are welcome!

Best regards
BSAS Comittee