Mother Courage and the Future of War

Author: Farmer, Paul E.

Source: Social Analysis, Volume 52, Number 2, Summer 2008 , pp. 165-184(20)

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Abstract:

What are the true costs of war? If anthropologists are to help answer this question, it will be because we can link personal narratives (and qualitative methods) to historically deep and geographically broad analyses of conflict. This essay seeks to explore the costs of armed conflict—the economic, affective, and general social costs of war—by examining the experience of a single family, two generations of it, caught in the midst of two conflicts. Their experience links the United States to Haiti, Cuba, and Iraq. As limited as conclusions might be, in reflecting on these narratives, we might still conclude that the true costs of war are rarely, if ever, gauged.

Keywords: CONFLICT; COSTS OF WAR; DETAINEES; GUANTÁNAMO; HAITI; IRAQ; WAR

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/sa.2008.520210

Publication date: 2008-06-01

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Social Analysis has long been at the forefront of anthropology's engagement with the humanities and other social sciences. In forming a critical, concerned, and empirical perspective, it encourages contributions that break away from the disciplinary bounds of anthropology and suggest innovative ways of challenging hegemonic paradigms through 'grounded theory', analysis based in original empirical research. The journal invites contributions directed toward a critical and theoretical understanding of cultural, political, and social processes, as well as the work of active ethnographic researchers who study the forces involved in the production of human suffering, poverty, prejudice, war, and violence.
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Mother Courage and the Future of War

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