5 Maintaining Social Tranquility: Internal and External Loci of Aggression Control
What accounts for peaceful societies? In Chapter 2, Bruce Knauft accounted for peaceful behavior in terms of the adaptive advantages conferred by sociability and cooperation; in Chapter 3, Robert Dentan examined the historical experiences of encIaved societies and refugee bands. Here, Douglas Fry ta...
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.507.7391 http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/Archtext/Fry94.pdf |
| Summary: | What accounts for peaceful societies? In Chapter 2, Bruce Knauft accounted for peaceful behavior in terms of the adaptive advantages conferred by sociability and cooperation; in Chapter 3, Robert Dentan examined the historical experiences of encIaved societies and refugee bands. Here, Douglas Fry takes another perspective. In Maintaining Social Tranquility he argues that early experiences may create barriers to the expression of aggression in later life. The focus of Fry's work is a comparison between two Zapotec communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. One is markedly more violent than the other. The difference is explained by different socialization processes. In the nonviolent community, parents model peaceful behaviors and warn their children about the conse-quences of physical aggression. In the more violent community, parents teach their children to anticipate the use of force, and model it for them in the use of corporal punishment. Substantial cross-cultural data support the importance Fry gives to socialization. Later in this volume, Jean Briggs also makes the point (in an unexpected way) in her analysis of the Inuit treatment of children (Chapter 6). Peace begins in the nursery. |
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