Wednesday 14 October 2015

San, Sami and pre 1700s American Indians, or 21st century US and China: which societies are more violent?

Reading Na's blog post again, I thought of a connection with the societies we have recently read about in the readings in chapter of Quest: the pre-European tribal cultures of North America, the Sami reindeer herders, the farmers of the US Midwest, modern Japan, the San hunter gatherer people, the US and China (Hartmann, 2007).

Hartmann focusses on the economic similarities and differences among the groups she discusses in her readings, but a question that occurred to me was what the differences are in peacefulness and safety from violence among the different types of society. For example, looking at my own country, which are the more violent cultures: the traditional tribal cultures of the native Australians who were there for 40,000 years before my ancestors took over, or the modern Western culture of Australia? Is modern, Westernising Thailand more or less violent than the more traditional versions of Thai culture? Also worth considering I thought is whether the world as a whole is becoming more or less violent and dangerous.

The 9/11 terrorist act that we discussed briefly in class this morning also came to mind, and apart from Na's response to the recent terrorist bombing in Turkey, the recent bombing at the Erawan shrine likely also comes to mind.
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My question is:
Which type of society is more peaceful and free of violence: more traditional societies or modern states?

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Reference
Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
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4 comments:

  1. Unknown14 October 2015 at 22:35

    Generally speaking, I, myself, view that traditional societies are more peaceful and free of violence.

    Modern states are somewhat complicated and disordered owing to the advent of advanced technology, high increase in the number of population, globalization, industrialization, various economic systems, less natural resources and energy, higher inequality in society in terms of affluence and education.

    In contrast, traditional societies is quite simple and different from modern ones, so people in such society have less tendency to commit crime, terrorism, or rebellion and to corrupt.

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  2. Peter AUA15 October 2015 at 07:24

    Also in my mind were some connections with Law's essay on faith, which we've just started reading. Do you agree?

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  3. Anonymous15 October 2015 at 21:02

    Both have violence, just in different forms. Violence in modern society happened over colonization. Violence in modern states comes in the form of power harassment.

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  4. Peter AUA18 October 2015 at 20:11

    In fact, it is the modern states which are the least violent. Native, traditional and primitive people are almost always far more violent societies than our modern, Western societies are.

    If you would like to practice your listening skills, you might enjoy "The surprising decline in violence" short TED talk by Steven Pinker (2007) one of Harvard University's most productive and brilliant academics, as he presents solid evidence (facts, statistics and reasons) to show that human society is becoming less violent as we move away from the Biblical ages to less religious and more moral societies.

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