Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Violence in Society

Demon warrior puppets, sword-wielding Taoist priests, spirit mediums lacerating their bodies with spikes and blades--these are among the most dramatic images in Chinese religion. Usually linked to the propitiation of plague gods and the worship of popular military deities, such ritual practices have an obvious but previously unexamined kinship with the traditional Chinese martial arts.

The long and durable history of martial arts iconography and ritual in Chinese religion suggests something far deeper than mere historical coincidence. Avron Boretz argues that martial arts gestures...

Mediating Across Difference is based on a fundamental premise: to deal adequately with conflict--and particularly with conflict stemming from cultural and other differences--requires genuine openness to different cultural practices and dialogue between different ways of knowing and being. Equally essential is a shift away from understanding cultural difference as an inevitable source of conflict, and the development of a more critical attitude toward previously under-examined Western assumptions about conflict and its resolution.

To address the ensuing challenges, this book...

Hoy como ayer, la violencia organizada del hombre sobre el hombre continua siendo parte de la condicion humana. En muchos casos esta violencia es perpetrada por regimenes despoticos. En otras ocasiones es la respuesta de pueblos que se rebelan ante sistemas opresivos o gobiernos a los que consideran ilegitimos o tiranicos.

El libro "Los Limites de la Violencia: Lecciones de una vida revolucionaria" recoge las memorias y reflexiones de Elan Le Vieux, un revolucionario que sobrevivio cien anos recorriendo los escenarios politicamente mas conmocionados del siglo XX. Bajo la premisa de que...

Direct, interpersonal violence is a pervasive, yet often mundane feature of our day-to-day lives. Paradoxically, violence is both ordinary and extraordinary. Violence, in other words, is often hidden in plain sight. Space, Place, and Violence seeks to uncover that which is too apparent: to critically question both violent geographies and the geographies of violence. With a focus on direct violence, this book situates violent acts within the context of broader political and structural conditions. Violence, it is argued, is both a social and spatial practice. Adopting a geographic...

The counterterrorism policies following September 11, 2001, brought the definition and legitimacy of torture to the forefront of political, military, and public debates. This timely volume explores the question of torture through multiple lenses by situating it within systems of belief, social networks of power, and ideological worldviews. Individual essays examine the boundaries of what is deemed legitimate political violence for the sake of state security, the immediate and long-term effects of torture on human and social bodies, the visual and artistic representations of torture, how...

The topic of violence in the media seems as inundated as can be. Countless studies and research projects have been conducted, mostly to show its negative effects on society. What Gwynneth Symonds proposes, though, takes this significant topic one step further: studying the aesthetics of media violence. By defining key terms like the 'graphic' nature and 'authenticity' of violent representations, and discussing how those definitions are linked to actual violence outside the film and television screen, Symonds broadens the arena of study.
Engagingly written, The Aesthetics of...

What are the prospects for human health in a world threatened by disease and violence? Since World War II, at least 160 wars have erupted around the globe. Over 24 million people have died in these conflicts, and millions more suffered illness and injury. In this volume, leading scholars and practitioners examine the impact of structural, military, and communal violence on health, psychosocial well-being, and health care delivery. By investigating the fields of violence that define our modern world, the authors are able to provide alternative global health paradigms that can be used to...