Transcript cultural conflict - of /courses - Victoria University of Wellington

Culture and
Intergroup Relations
James H. Liu
Centre for Applied Cross Cultural
Research
School of Psychology
Victoria University of Wellington
Overview
• Subjective Culture and Intergroup Conflict
• Civilizational Conflict and Culture
• Religious Fundamentalism as a Source for
Prejudicial Ideology
• Suicide Terrorism and the Social
organization of violence (Al-Queda)
• Nationalism and Racism as Sources for
Prejudicial Ideology
Subjective Culture
• Cross cultural psychology has focused on
subjective (or psychological) rather than objective
(institutional, organizational, infrastructural)
aspects of culture
• Most psychological definitions of culture focus on
it as an enduring system of symbolic meaning
shared by people.
• It is considered to overlap with, but not be the
same as society, which focuses more on
institutionalized aspects of culture within a
bounded territory under a political authority
Subjective Culture and Integroup Relations
• In practice, cross cultural studies treat culture as
nationality, but when comparing two nations they
usually select two that are quite different.
• The dimensions of cultural variation (e.g., INDCOL, PD) are too abstract to influence intergroup
relations very much, although Triandis has
suggested that collectivists may favour their ingroup (however defined) more than individualists,
and Yamagishi notes the low level of general trust
in Japan (a collectivist society).
• One of the few things self construal does not affect
much is intergroup relations and prejudice!
History and Identity
• Liu and colleagues’ work on representations of
history and ethnic/national identity has found that
the content of beliefs about historical symbols
influences attitudes towards intergroup issues
• Following this line of work, it is the content of
culture--specific symbols that influences
intergroup relations (e.g., the Treaty and MaoriPakeha in NZ) within a nation.
• Future research will examine representations of
war across 25 cultures and their relationship with
other cross cultural indicators like IND-COL,
SWB, or propensity to engage in warfare.
Conflict between Civilizations
• Politcal scientist Huntington (1997) argues that the
“clash of civilizations” is crucial to conflict and
stability in post-Communism. Defining
civilization as “culture writ large”, and claiming
that both refer to the overall way of life of a
people, he divides the world into Western,
Orthodox, Islamic, Sinic, Hindic, African, Latin
American, Buddhist, Japanese civilizations. He
argues that future conflicts will be sparked by
cultural factors rather than economics or ideology,
noting that societies united by ideology have come
apart (Soviet Union, Yugoslavia) whereas the
Germanies, Koreas, and Chinas tend to reunite.
Multi-polar, multi-civilizational world
• Huntington argues that the traditional political
science lenses of bi-polar ideology (Capitalism vs
communism, rich north vs. poor south, Western v
non-Western) obscures the complexity of
international relations.
• The “realistic” model of state interests (realpolitik)
obscures the fact that values, culture, and
institutions pervasively influence how states
define their interests.
• Cultures/civilizations may resist “modernization”
or Westernization despite potential benefits. No
universality because of language and religion.
Religious conflict between Islam and the West
• Huntington has been made to look like a
prophet because of Sept 11 and consequent
conflicts, but he admits that few scholars
think there is such a thing as African or
Latin American civilization.
• Religious conflict between Christianity and
Islam seems to be a special case of
civilizational conflict rather than a general
rule. I can think of no Buddhist crusades or
jihads, for example.
Historical Origins of Conflict
• Christianity and Islam have been engaged in
warfare somewhere in the world throughout
almost the entire history of the two religions
• Both claim universal salvation and divine origins–
but Jesus is acknowledged as a prophet by
Mohammed, as are other Old Testament prophets
• Arab expansion into Byzantium (Eastern
Orthodox) & Persia from late 600s, leading to the
Crusades and sack of Jerusalem in 1099.
• More barbaric early crimes committed by
Christians– e.g., slaughter of Jerusalem, the ethnic
cleansing of Spain in the 16th c. of Jews+Muslims
The Rise of Islam
Historical Conflict continued
• Pope absolved Crusaders of sins to be commited
in advance of their expeditions. Saladin crushed
the Crusaders in 1187, and subsequent Crusades
continued without much success into the 1300s
• Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople (and
Greece) in 1453, and from the 14th c.-1912
dominated the Balkans. The Battle of Kosovo in
1389 was invoked by Slovodan Milosevic in 1999
as a reason for the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian
Muslims from Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia.
The Decline and Fall of the Turkish Empire;
Industrialization and Enlightenment in West
• From the 19th century, the Ottoman Turkish
empire was in decay, and Egypt and parts of the
Middle East were colonized the West
• During WWI, the British and French drew up the
secret Sykes-Pikot Agreement to partition the
Middle East into a patchwork of small states they
would jointly rule; division of oil revenues was
delivered under the 1928 Red Line Agreement.
• Present day states in the Middle East are a creation
of British and French interests in oil & power.
Historical Context of Suicide
Terrorism
• The rise of Western civilization poses a threat to
the identity and values of other major civilizations.
Exacerbated by widespread feelings of injustice,
and governance by unpopular authoritarian
regimes backed by the West (e.g., Palestinians,
Egyptians, Saudis, NOT Iran!).
• Seek an explanation for backward conditions that
protects the self-esteem of the in-group (SOCIAL
IDENTITY THEORY).
• Religious ideology blaming OTHERS, both
Satanic America and own corrupt rulers, calling
for a return to RELIGIOUS PURITY.
Religious Fundamentalism
• Religious fundamentalism has appeal
throughout the Islamic world. It can be
understood as a reaction to modernism, and
is found in the Western world (particularly
the US) as well. Fundamentalists stress the
absolutism and inerrancy of religious truth
revealed in sacred scripture and are opposed
by mighty evil that can only be defeated by
following an authoritative set programme
that leads to heavenly rewards.
Correlates of Religious
Fundamentalism
• Religious fundamentalism is consistently
positively correlated with prejudice in Christian
countries.
• Altemeyer finds acceptance of home religion is
positively correlated to Right Wing
Authoritarianism in all faiths in N.America. High
RWAs compartmentalize and think uncritically
when it comes to their religious beliefs.
Altemeyer claims that “Fundamentalism can be
viewed as a religious manifestation of RWA”.
The Wahabbi Sect of Islam
• Mecca is the Holy Centre of Islam, with all
Muslims charged to make a pilgrimmage to
Saudia Arabia at least once in their lives.
• The ruling sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia is
the highly fundamentalist Wahhabi, who
believe in a simple and unitary God whose
commandments are to be literally
interpreted from the Koran and the original
practices of Mohammed
A “Moderate” Fundamentalist
Interpretation of Jihad – fatwa-online.com
• Shaykh al-Islaam (Ibn Taymiyyah) said:
“Because this was a Jihad in Allaah¹s cause, which
caused a whole nation to truly believe, and he did not
really lose anything, since although he died he would
have to die anyway, sooner or later.”
To expose oneself to certain death in Holy War is okay.
• “and whoever kills himself with an iron weapon,
then the iron weapon will remain in his hand, and
he will continuously stab himself in his belly with
it in the Fire of Hell eternally, forever and ever”.
Reported by al-Bukhaaree, no. 5778 and Muslim, no.
109, in the Book of Eemaan.)
But suicide earns damnation
Fatwa on Suicide Bombing
• Ruling: Suicide bomber goes to hell
• Because this person has killed himself and
has not benefited Islam. So if he kills himself
along with ten, or a hundred, or two hundred
other people, then Islam will not benefit by
that, since the people will not accept Islam,
contrary to the story of the boy. Rather it will
probably just make the enemy more
determined, and this action will provoke
malice and bitterness in his heart to such an
extent that he may seek to wreak havoc upon
the Muslims. (60-70% of terror bombers in
Iraq=Saudi)
The Ideology of Al-Queda
• Ayman Al-Zawahiri is Al-Queda’s second in
command, and principle theorist from his own
words in Knights under the prophet’s banner
• "He [Sayyid Qutub] affirmed that the issue of
unification in Islam is important and that the
battle between Islam and its enemies is
primarily an ideological one over the issue of
unification. It is also a battle over to whom
authority and power should belong-- to God's
course and shari'ah, to man-made laws and
material principles, or to those who claim to
be intermediaries between the Creator and
mankind.
Al-Zawahiri continued
• “An analysis of the political situation in Egypt
would reveal that Egypt is struggling between
two powers: An official power and a popular
power that has its roots deeply established in
the ground, which is the Islamic movement in
general and the solid jihad nucleus in
particular.
• The first power is supported by the United States,
the west, Israel, and most of the Arab rulers. The
second power depends on God alone then on its
wide popularity and alliance with other jihad
movements throughout the Islamic nation…”
Osama Bin-Laden
• “This is a matter of religion and creed; it is
not what Bush and Blair maintain, that it is
a war against terrorism,” he declared in a
videotaped speech broadcast over al Jazeera
television on November 3, 2001. “There is
no way to forget the hostility between us
and the infidels. It is ideological, so
Muslims have to ally themselves with
Muslims.”
Religious Ideology conclusion:
Identity and History
• Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri make frequent
references to Arab culture heroes like Saladin, a
uniter of Arab peoples against the Crusaders, and
to the oppression suffered by the common people
at the hands of nationalists like Nasser & Sadat.
• Extremists and moderate Muslim fundamentalists
are using the same set of historical events to
mobilize different agendas– one presuming victory
against all odds, the other more pragmatic, one
mobilizing the Muslim nation, the other specific
nationalities.
Ideology alone does not lead to
violence: Social organization
• Osama Bin Laden is a “terrorist CEO” who has
applied business administration and modern
management techniques learned both at university
and in the family’s construction business to the
running of a transnational terrorist organization.
There are 4 levels of operational style associated
with Al-Queda: 1) Professional Cadre, 2) Trained
Amateurs , 3) Local Walk-ins, 4) Like Minded
Groups, each capable of operating independently.
Social organization of
Palestinian Suicide Bombers
• In 2000 (second intifada) they were young males,
but today, suicide bombers are middle-aged and
young, married and unmarried, some of them have
children and some are women. Perceptions of
injustice fuel widespread support for terrorism.
• Invariably, a terrorist organization such as Hamas,
the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), or the al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigade has recruited the bomber,
conducted reconnaissance, prepared the explosive
device, and identified a target. Family receives
$25,000US payment for deceased bomber.
Logistics of Palestinian Suicide Bombing
• Quartermasters obtain the explosives and the other
materials (nuts, bolts, nails, and the like) that are
combined to make a bomb for about $150.
• "minders" sequester the bomber in a safe house,
isolated from family and friends
• A film crew makes a martyrdom video, to help
ensure that the bomber can't back out and for
propaganda and recruitment purposes
• Reconnaissance teams have scouted the target and
help deliver the bomber close to the target
• Culture does not equal society. Specific social
organization rather than general culture produces
violence.
Racism and Colonization
• Religion is more timeless than other aspects of
culture. Economic structures can lead to cultural
conflict as well, most notably in the imperialism
that emerged from European colonization of the
rest of the world from the 16th-20th centuries.
• Racism was an essential part of the ideology
required by Europeans to maintain their empires.
Racism was preached in the academy (based on
“sciences” as phrenology), and only got a bad
name because of Hitler. Other races were
considered inferior (less advanced) and incapable
of governing themselves.
Empire, End of Empire, and Karl Marx
• The “white man’s burden” was to spread
civilization. As one African writer wrote, “at the
beginning of colonization, we had the land and
they had the Bible, and at the end of it, they had
the land and we had the Bible.”
• Said (1993) writes that in 1800 Western powers
held about 35% of the earth’s land, in 1878 67%,
and by 1914 85%. To project power over such
distances and spaces with such a small population
required a functional ideology of racism.
• Racism has declined with the age of empires. A
case of beliefs flowing from the means of
production that is the core tenet of Marxism.
Nationalism as Resistance to Imperialism
• Western superiority by the turn of the 20th
century was so marked as to destroy the
confidence if not the constitution of other
civilizations.
• Traditional systems of sovereignty based on
feudal or tribal structures have all but
disappeared. What energized the nonWestern world’s resistance to Western
imperialism was nationalism, reinvigorating
ideas of peoplehood through new leadership
claiming more horizontal inclusiveness.
Nationalism as Prejudicial Ideology
• Nationalism is necessary for liberation from
imperialism and other forms of oppression, but
can also be the source of terrible misdeeds.
• Can involve claims to national purity & security,
as when the Turks massacred the Armenians in
1915-16, or resistance to imperialism as claimed
by Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait, be
fusion with religion as with Slobodan Milosevic,
or fused with racism as with Hitler.
• At very minimum, nationalism involves
inequality, protecting state interests vs. outsiders
Correlates of Nationalism
• Nationalism as defined as a feeling of
superiority over other nations can be
operationalized as distinct from patriotism
which involves a love of one’s own country
• Nationalism is positively correlated with
social dominance orientation (SDO), right
wing authoritarianism (RWA) and
ethnocentrism.
The emergence of global consciousness
• The new era of unbridled free trade has led to
unprecedented movement of people and ideas to
create an interconnected and interpenetrating
world. Global consciousness involves
identification with humanity as a whole instead of
particular groups, and may be an antidote for
ideological prejudices.
• Preliminary data indicate that in the USA, national
identity and global consciousness are negatively
correlated, whereas in Japan there is no
relationship, and in Taiwan and China they are
positively correlated.
What will be in global
consciousness?
• Probably at present it is largely economic, a
consequence of needing to master the flows
of money and people and ideas.
• But in the future, humanity may be able to
construct a more inclusive narrative to
create a sense of itself as a whole. This
narrative will have to encompass both unity
and diversity, commonality and difference.