Cultural Construction of Violence Research Paper

Cultural Construction of Violence - Research Paper Example For long, people have only considered violence as a trait that a person is born with; that one is either born violent or not. This, to many, implies that the proclivity of a person to engage in violent activities is long found in people’s genetics and there is less that can be done to completely eradicate it. This may seem to have some sense of truth in it as there have been cases where a young person may come out to be violent throughout his life. This is often seen with the kind of tenderness that he treats other people with including animals. However, if violence is a trait that one is born with, how can peer-inflicted violence be explained? Though the genetic makeup may have a significant effect on the behavior of a person, there are many questions concerning human violence that can still not be answered only by genetics. Moreover, violence also takes many forms and in different contexts. This implies that the definition of violence varies from one physical location to the other and can never be generalized. This having been taken into account, it is therefore true to say that the interpretations and meanings accorded to violence across societies, cultures and communities have significant effect on the trends of violence recorded in the areas. ... Violence is therefore not only genetically motivated but also structurally formed. The human genetics also have significant on the character and actions of people but violence can as well be culturally constructed. For instance, in intertribal wars undoubtedly involving extreme forms of violence as is the case of the Thull, a Kohistan community, living in the mountain slopes near the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, are culturally constructed. Here, the people find pride in engaging in cultural raids and retaliatory attacks that usually involve various forms of violence. This cannot only be explained using genetics as genetics do not provide room for generalization explanation of the acts of violence, more so involving large numbers of people. This makes cultural construction of violence be regarded as a serious form of creation of violent behavior among people. The research focused on the Thull, a Kohistan community. The Kohistanis rely majorly on transhumant pastoralism that in volves keeping goats and sheep. However, they also grow crops in their fertile fields as I found out. The people of Thull have undergone a great religious transformation. This is evident from their transformation from Buddhism, Hinduism and presently Muslims. This has also seen the absorption of other Pakistan members to their culture. However, their cultural effects and implications have mostly originated from the Pakhtum. The Kohistan area is geographically large and has thus been affected by political fragmentation and cultural diversities. Within the Thull Kohistan villages, there are also smaller lineages, of which each produce a representation to the