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Accepted Paper:

Anthropology and conflicts  
Marco Ramazzotti (Churchill College, Cambridge)

Paper short abstract:

Review of the most important definitions of anthropology of conflict and of war, starting from the concepts of just and unjust wars. Definition of modern war and the modern possibilities of participating or refusing a war. Roles of anthropologists. International law and obligation to follow correct - legal orders. Need for new instruments for the analysis and conduct of wars.

Paper long abstract:

I intend to intervene in the debate on

1) the modern analysis of war by anthropologists (anthropology of conflits and wars)

2) the legitimacy of the use of anthropology in the conduct of wars (use of social and economic anthropology in analysing a war situation).

War and social attitudes to war have changed. While the distinction between just and unjust wars has been always present in Western cultures but limited to a State's evaluation of wars, nowadays peoples' reactions to wars are not limited to moral judgements but involve their acceptance of and participation in wars.

People can accept and refuse wars.

Soldiers can accept and refuse wars. Number of American servicemen refused involvement in the Vietnam war. Let's remember the European fighters who joined their contries' Resistences against the Fascist and Nazi oppression.

Anthropologists who refuse all wars do not recognize the difference between just and unjust wars.

War has changed. We live in a period of asimmetrical warfare. Do we analyse these asimmetrical wars with the same instruments as the simmetrical wars of the past? The difference in culture between the conventional armies and the unconventional ones require the understanding of different cultures and different war cultures: we need anthropology.

Panel P05
Anthropology and security studies
  Session 1