Launch of Martin Soukup's book Anthropology of War (and Basics of Cultural Anthropology)

The book Anthropology of War represents the first original Czech work devoted to the anthropological study of war as a social and cultural phenomenon and shows its many layers. In accordance with the anthropological tradition, the author deals primarily with alliterative societies. He refuses to see these as fundamentally either peaceful or warlike. He critically engages with existing approaches to war and warfare and offers ethnographic examples of societies from different cultural complexes. The author also tackles the phenomenon of war within the framework of general anthropological knowledge, offers a number of parallels to wars in modern societies, and examines the psychological stresses that led to the mass dehumanization and murder of people in the 20th century. The book also includes a discussion of the nature of anthropological knowledge that has been applied as part of strategy in various war conflicts. The author demonstrates war and warfare as part of the cultural repertoire of humanity, and at the same time tries to make the case that humanity is not doomed by its nature to wage war, but simply knows how to do so.

Free entry