What is Culture, and How Does it Help in Conflict Resolution - Essay Example

1. What is Culture, and how does it help in Conflict Resolution? To define an intangible quality that has the impact the likes of which culture has,is a task which takes some considerable insight into how human beings function and the impact that living together can have on a group of people. In the broadest of terms, Culture is a set of rules, practices, norms, ideas and believes that are acquired a result of past experiences of interactions with each other, compiled, stored and practiced by the people who are brought into close contact with other people on a regular basis. These past experiences and the social knowledge provided to human beings as a result of what they think is wrong, right and acceptable, to a large extent, plays a crucial role in determining how conflict is viewed by different people around the world. According to Fry, Conflict is a perceived feeling of a divergence in the interests of two or more people and groups, and how these people decide to act upon this threatening divergence- whether they act in a violent or non-violent way, or if they even view this conflict as something threatening- depends on the culture that these people have thrived in. Samovar and Porter (1995), point out that culture controls and defines the various circumstances and conditions under which different messages are and are not noticed and interpreted, and similarly, the way which a particular conflict is viewed, deciphered and ultimately handled has a lot to do with the individual culture that people, societies and groups have developed over a course of time. Different people and societies have varying attitudes towards how they react towards conflicts and Fry provides a variety of examples of Brazil’s Upper Xingu River Basin where a group of inter connected tribes have developed a system of harmony through which they avoid conflict and practice a peaceful existence together. The villagers adopt an attitude of tolerance through which problems are resolved mostly in a non-violent fashion and many issues are over-looked. Fry also gives the example of other groups of people such as the Tarojas of Indonesia who also use avoidance to indirectly deal with any issues that may arise between two families and the lack of confrontational activities which lead to minimization of violent contact. Other communities, such as the Jalé of New Guinea may cease to speak with to each other when two or more parties are faced with pressing conflicts and altogether avoid being in the presence of one another so that violent confrontations are virtually non-existent. Apart from toleration and negotiation, other techniques used by people such as the Japanese include negotiations which may lead to the deliverance of compensation on the part of those who have wronged someone. The above examples are indicative of the fact that different cultures employ different techniques through which confrontational activities are minimized and avoided so that these people can continue to live in mutual co-existence. 3. Fry argues that ‘Warfare was a rare anomaly through most of Pre-history’. Discuss?. Douglas Fry has pointed out, again and again in his book “The Human Potential for Peace” that war has never been the predominant answer employed by man to counter any conflict of interest that has arisen between him and his peers. The author points out that a thorough analysis of the literature in this regard has provided a grim glimpse into the human mind, a mind which is purported to be forever pre-occupied with violent thoughts. Fry argues that to call ‘war natural’ would be to say that since it has always happened it -in all likeliness- will happen again and when it does, it would be normal and acceptable. The author points out that although the fact remains that over the course of history, Man has exhibited extreme incidents of violence and destruction but to point these incident out and then ignore the millions of people who go through a mundane daily existence empty of all sorts of violent contact, would be a biased way to view things. The author has supported his argument for the cause that Human beings have a huge potential for peace by pointing out that hundreds of thousands of people, races and societies all over the world are living in peaceful co-existence and while a very few of them are faced with constant violent turmoil, a large number of them try to go to greta lengths to avoid direct violent confrontation when faced with a conflict. Fry has provided with a great many examples regarding this and provided detailed accounts of societies around the world who employ various discretion such as tolerance and negotiations to reach a common ground where with their adversaries o that they cvan avoid utter blood shed. He has provided evidence that can lead people to form a ’healthy skepticism’ regarding the issue that Man throughout history has been pre-dominantly war prone. Although the author has by no means negated the fact that war does exist -after all it would be extremely senseless to claim something like that- but maintains that the larger number of human beings in the world today and before today had not been belligerent and pugnacious by nature. The author points out that peaceful societies such as the Semai of Malaysia, the Norwegians of Norway, the BaKongo of Africa and the Icelanders of Iceland exist all over the world and these are much numerous than those societies that are violent in nature and where violence is condoned. From the discussion that has been lead by the author, I believe that it is necessary to nurture and develop within people a mind set which negates violence at its most basic level. For societies to take up an attitude towards dis regard of violence and acceptance of the fact that peaceful existence does lead to a better life, it is necessary that the leaders of all such societies lead their people by example. 2. Compare and Contrast two conflicts that have been discussed in Class. The Human Terrain System: Corey Flintoff, in his article talks about the way the US Marine are taking the initiative to reach out with a white flag towards the Afghan people, they very people who were brought down by the hands who now seek to build them. This initiative is known as the Human Terrain System and is a program being organized and orchestrated by the Department of Defense on the behalf of the US government, aimed to win the hearts of the Afghan villagers. This case highlights the project which seeks to provide benefits to the ailing Afghan economy and help the Afghani villagers by providing them improved education and a better healthcare system. However, what is contradictory to the claims, the HTS, which is based on an anthropological context, is being carried out in a hostile environment of perpetual war and terror, something which belies the very essence of what this system claims it will do. The fact that those carrying out a quest into the troubled waters to put things right are the ones who have the eventual power to arrest, detain or even kill those whom they question on the pretext of what they learn, is an alarming idea that totally violates all the rules of an anthropological quest. This form of conflict management has a number of under lying motives and is a complex form of social manipulation tool that is mostly beneficial to those parties who yield the power over those who are subject to them, and in my opinion such form of resolution tools mostly turn out to be unproductive.. Another case that has been discussed in class pointed out an article written by Michel Martin where she has talked about the partiality that men still associate with women. The tone of the article which the author has written is one of suppressed belligerence, dealing spite with spite, in a non-violent yet still angry tone. The important point here is the fact that the author notes that men to this date talk of women in a condescending way, and if confronted about it, they shrug it off in a non-committal way. This according to her has lead to a deep well of discord between men in women in general, where men dislike if someone points these things out to them. What is noticeable in the article is the fact that the author has reached the conclusion that there is no point in a discourse of any sort which may lead to the resolution of this discord between many men and women. Both these cases in my opinion deal with conflict management approaches that are in the long run ineffective and in efficient. Whereas the first approach takes a positive attitude towards the resolving of a problem, it is still deceptive in the sense that only one party has the right to introduce any reconciliatory idea. The second case is simply a discarding of all notions that this discord or conflict can be resolved in a non-verbally challenging way. 4. Application of Fry’s arguments to the student led discussion: The first case that I will discuss is that presented by Group 2, during week two. This case highlighted the possibility of conflict arising between room mate, providing insight into how different life style, habits, natures and contrasting opinions can cause rift between people who are living together. This case highlighted conflict and its three dimensions which comprised of the Material level : which is essentially the ‘what’ of the conflict, the Symbolic level: which defines the reasons, the various cultural values held by those experiencing the conflict and why it arose because of these values, and the Relational level of the conflict, which describes how the course of the action will be determined by the other two factors which are associated with the conflict. According to the students who presented this case, the reason that conflicts arise between room mates may vary and all of them are founded in the fact that people are culturally trained to accept some things as natural whereas other things, which may seem perfectly natural to another person, may seem out of the ordinary and unacceptable to them. This essay will shed light on another case presented during week four, on the war conflict raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This war has been amongst the deadliest that have ever been waged upon human beings and is a classic example of how lust for money and natural resources can drive man to the heights of violence that Fry suggests is a very small part of the daily going ons of normal life. IRC reports that each month, some 45,000 people die in Congo (http://mediastorm.org/0022.htm). These deaths occur mostly due to medical reasons which can easily be treated but the political situation of the country does not allow aid to be effectively provided to those who require it the most. Congo is perhaps, one of the worst examples of the violence that man is capable of. Even though Fry suggests that such utter violence to a larger degree is not a naturally occurring phenomena in the human beings, the fact remains that such humungous conflicts are still unresolved in the world and even though human beings in most part of the world are leading a relatively unharmed life, there are still those to whom this discussion is of no use because for them these conflicts will eventually cause them their life. References Duong, Kitchell, To, Tomboulian. (2010). Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Power Point Presentation. Flintoff, C. (2010). Marines Tap Social Sciences in Afghan War Effort. Npr. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125502485 Fry, Douglas P. (2006). The Human potential for Peace. New York: Oxford University Press. Martin, M. (2010). Can I just Tell You: No we are not going to Sit down and shut up. Npr. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125580049 on 25th April 2010. Rape of a Nation. MediaStorm. Retrieved from: http://mediastorm.org/0022.htm. On 26th April 2010. Samovar, L. A, &; Porter, R. E. (1995). Communication between cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Tina, Stacy, Urvashi & Amber. (2010). Conflict across cultures: a unique experience of bridging differences. Power Point Presentation. Read More