Human Nature and the Potential for Peace
Peace is a concept that many feel familiar with – and yet clear-cut definitions are hard to pin down. Our research has shown that peace gets visualised and studied in very different ways both within and across different disciplines. As a result, the complexities and contradictions of the notion are rarely addressed, resulting in lack of clarity and understanding.
In this presentation, Visualising Peace student Claire Percival reflects on what she has learnt about different habits of studying peace by comparing approaches in Modern History and Social Anthropology. She underlines the importance of de-centring heavily theory-based, ‘standard’ Western narratives of peace, as simply the opposite of conflict. She also problematises tendencies in some anthropological scholarship that promote indigenous people and belief systems as ‘models’ of peace/peaceful practices which Western initiatives can simply adopt/utilise. Taking case studies from both Modern History and Social Anthropology, Claire identifies some common threads that connect both disciplines; but she also reflects on what more they can learn from each other and the challenges they both face in deepening our wider understanding of peace itself and of the various ideologies that different communities attach to it. As she discusses, it is partly through their contrasting approaches that they can collectively help deepen our understanding of peace and of the various ideologies that different communities attach to it.
What can Modern History and Social Anthropology teach each other – and us – about past and present peace building? Claire Percival, April 2022