SOC 4010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Japanese Canadians, Stranger Danger, Islamic Terrorism
3 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOC*4010
Violence and Society
Monday January 15th 2018
Chapter 1: The Past as a Foreign Country
The Unpleasant Past
• Your grandparents may have fought in wars, been interned or resettled, or took cover in
bomb shelters
• We pride ourselves in being superior to out ancestors, but we may also be more decadent
– unwilling to sacrifice or take risks or to stand up for ourselves
o To be good people we must take risks to help other peoples aid
o We need to use violence when the circumstances arise
o Cannot take freedom for granted
▪ Freedom is many things, but free
• The British Empire had 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Somme in 1916
o Sometimes violence is the solution, especially in the past
• We either romanticize or demonize the past
• Canadian identity formed at Vimy Ridge in April 1917
o Emerged themselves as an rising nation
Fighting Over Human Prehistory
• Was it idyllic or savage?
• Christians, Rousseau, Marxists, and Historical feminists imagine and assume a primitive
utopia
• Hobbes said that life was nasty, brutish and short, and a war of all against all
o Hobbes was almost executed for being an atheist
o Had different views than other philosophers
• Philosophers, poets and anthropologists have had swings about both it & Nature
• Caveman stereotypes gave way to view of early mankind as more intelligent & social
Ancient Remains
• Disturbing proportion of best preserved remains suggest violent deaths
• Otzi Man of the Alps & Kennewick Man, the bodies pickled in ancient bogs, gnawed
human bones
• Not everyone wants ancient remains analyzed lest they disprove their ideology
• Analyzing our own DNA suggests we developed partial resistance to diseases spread
through cannibalism
Possible Counter-Arguments?
• People want to believe what they want
• Various news stories that “maybe prehistoric life was really peaceful”
• They always refer to a single isolated sample of skeletons (not to all samples) and then
mention Bonobos, and then say maybe… (i.e., if you can’t disprove it, then maybe
they’re right!)
• Marxists, Radical Feminists, critics of Modernity, all want to believe
• Yet, still, at least 15% of prehistoric skeletons shoe physical trauma
Ancient Literature
• Violence in ancient legends, i.e., Homer graphic & heroic, winner’s perspective
• Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is full of it
o Cain and Abel, Noah’s flood
o God killing (earthquakes, plagues)
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SOC*4010
Violence and Society
o God ordering genocide (Moabites, Amalekites, Philistines, Canaanites)
o Must probability mythical, but it provided a theological justification for violence
(for all Abrahamite religions) – does not condemn slavery, genocide, rape
▪ We can do things, everything we do can be justified because we are the
winners
o Death, for coitus interruptus, rudeness to parents, working on Sabbath, idolatry,
questioning authority, male homosexuality, adultery, getting raped in the city,
conducting a census
Anticipating Criticism (1)
• Some freak out if we say there is violence in the Bible or Koran ”… You racist!”
• Talked to Rabbi Lavery-Yisraeli about this
• He said it is not racist nor pre-jorative, no rabbi takes Old Testament literally
• He suggested, when you point out violence in the Old Testament (Jewish) also mention
the violence in other scriptures
o Prediction of violence
• Violence in the Old Testament then was more metaphorical, and violence in New
Testament (Four Horseman of the Apocalypse & Hell) hasn’t happened yet
Anticipating Criticism (2)
• People exaggerated violence to illustrate their greatness and how God was on their side
and were not trying to write an objective history
• Archaeologists like Isreali Finkelstein conclude that must Old Testament violence was
exaggerated (he can’t find Exodus of Moses or the invasion of Joshua)
• Muhammed was said to be heroic for ethnically cleaning the Arabian peninsula and
killing his own Jewish allies
• Yet, archaeologists have trouble finding proof of that, too…
• The professors friend Tarek Fatah was kicked out of Saudi Arabia after asking about that
Pre-Modern Period of Europe
• Hagiography of saints and martyrdoms
• Medieval legends and ballads full of rape and murder by the good-guys
o If you survive and win, you have God on your side
• “Passion plays” & venerating the crucifix
• Knightly chivalry was for those of their own station (fair play in duels, ransom noble
prisoners) but common people and foreigners could still get abused
• Medieval punishments: hanged, drawn and quartered (traitors) and burning at stake
(heretics)
o Burning was seen as cleansing someone’s soul
▪ Getting rid of them, and cleansing them*
• Torture was legal (Friedrich Spee and Cesare Beccaria opposed it) and helped create the
Witchcraze
o Stated that torture was a bad idea
o Witchcraze happened in the 14th hundreds
▪ Was seen as a snowball effect*
Religion and Morality
• Some ask, how can you be moral if you don’t believe in God?
• Others ask, how can you be if you do?
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find more resources at oneclass.com
SOC*4010
Violence and Society
• Religious notions of Heaven: simplistic pleasures for unthinking compliance
o Hell is a bad idea and was adopted by Christians, Jews, etc
• Eternal fire, by loving God… king of…
• Good people were “God-fearing”
• Yet, we choose scriptures to support our views, most of us don’t really get our morality
from scripture, anymore
o We are not robots of a certain religion, we pick and choose
o Religion is a big factor in our lives, how do we choose? It is based on our
everyday lives
Best I Can Figure
• People ask how can be a good god cause such terrible things?
o It is the Wrong Question…better…
• How can such terrible things cause gods?
• Terrible stuff happens: earthquakes, storms, fires, famines, disease
• Attributed to agents beyond human control
• These entities must be appeased: through rituals of sacrifice and praise
Culture & Entertainment
• Fairy tales (original form had lots of violence and some sex), Grimm’s, Mother Goose
• Punch and Judy shows
• Westerns, Cowboys and Indians
• Popular entertainments once included bear-bearing, burning cats, public executions
• Shakespearians plays quite violent
o Public executions were seen as fun
• Dueling was once a key part of an upper-class man’s identity (marginalized groups were
forbidden to duel) – now brawling is reserved for boorish or underclass men
o Dueling occurred if someone insulted you (in pubic)
• “Men of honour” --- to “men of dignity”
o Instead of fighting for honour, people would say they are too good to fight you
o Big emphasis on dignity – stupid to fight each other
Our Changing Normal
• Advertisements once made fun of wife-battering, as did The Honeymooners
• Even existing comic strips were more violent
o Cannot be seen nowadays
• Sesame Street reruns getting bowdlerized
• Spanking and dodgeball getting banned
• Deviant for kids to be shooting rifles
o Back in the day, it was normal to go out and shoot animals
• Used to be normal and health for boys to get into fights, not it is deviant
• Used to be normal for a man to challenge another to fight over honour
o Fight over women, objects, things…
Beware the Naturalist Fallacy
• Are you ready to explore the roots of violence and peace?
• One version of fallacy is to derive the OUGHT from the IS --) or to wrongly accuse other
people of doing it!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 1: the past as a foreign country. The unpleasant past: your grandparents may have fought in wars, been interned or resettled, or took cover in bomb shelters, we pride ourselves in being superior to out ancestors, but we may also be more decadent. Ancient literature: violence in ancient legends, i. e. , homer graphic & heroic, winner"s perspective, old testament or hebrew bible is full of it, cain and abel, noah"s flood, god killing (earthquakes, plagues) Testament (four horseman of the apocalypse & hell) hasn"t happened yet. Witchcraze: stated that torture was a bad idea, witchcraze happened in the 14th hundreds, was seen as a snowball effect* Beware the naturalist fallacy: are you ready to explore the roots of violence and peace, one version of fallacy is to derive the ought from the is --) or to wrongly accuse other people of doing it! The violent apes: once scientists assumed apes were relatively peaceful, other ape evidence: sexual dimorphism.
