NOTES

Fabbro, D., 1978. "Peaceful Societies: An Introduction," Journal of Peace Research XV(1):67-83.

Article is the first (and so far only) in the Journal of Peace Research to directly address the question of peaceful societies (see Wiberg 1981). Most anthropologists and other scholars in the general arena of peace studies taken in the broadest sense have simply lacked the intellectual courage, rigor, creativity, and objectivity to pursue peace directly as a research subject! Peace is rare not because violence and war are ubiquitous and nonviolence and peace are rare to absent in societies and daily life, but because nonviolence and peace are so rarely the subject of direct research. The deficiency is not in human nature or the human condition, but in scholarship and science, contrary to Gregor, et al.!

Fabbro titles his article an introduction to peaceful societies and focuses on their preconditions. His eight criteria for peace include the absence of violence of any kind and at any level including structural violence (indirect, institutional) and war (internal and external) as well as the absence of a standing police and/or military organization (p. 67). These are the preconditions for a peaceful society, and involve mostly the absence rather than presence of traits.

Through a limited cross-cultural comparison with a small sample of 5 foraging (Semai, Siriono, Kung, Mbuti, Copper Eskimo) and 2 farming (Tristan da Cunha and Hutterites) societies Fabbro arrives at the presence of traits in peaceful societies. (Tristan da Cunha is a group of islands around 1500 miles directly west of Cape Town, South Africa).

What do these societies have in common? "They are all small, face to face communities with a basically egalitarian social structure. Generally they lack formal patterns of ranking and stratification, place no restriction on the number of people capable of exercising authority or occupying positions of prestige and have economies which are based on generalized reciprocity" (emphasis added)(p. 67). On this basis Fabbro concludes that peace is not a utopian dream (p. 81). All of this implies that most of human prehistory and history, as people lived as hunter-gatherers, was peaceful (c.f. Keeley).

Fabbro views his study as preliminary, and recognizes future research needs as including a larger sample, longitudinal or historical (diachronic) analysis, comparisons with violent societies which are otherwise similar in social structure [e./g., Yanomami] (p. 81).

Are there any problems or limitations with Fabbro's analysis? (1) Unfortunately, a second implication is that more complex societies can not be peaceful, because they inevitably have large populations, social stratification, and resource competition. (2) The sample size and content (specific cases) might be challenged (e.g., see Knauft on homicide rates for Kung, Semai, etc.) (3) Fabbro tends to be essentialist which postmodernists might challenge. (4) Also he tends to consider peace as a stable condition rather than a dynamic process. (This last criticism also applies to Bonta, although to a lesser degree).

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NONVIOLENT SOCIETIES

ATTRIBUTES ABSENT

1. Intergroup violence and feuding

2. Internal (civil) and external war

3. Threat from some external enemy group or nation

4. Social stratification (classes) and other forms of structural violence such as sorcery and witchcraft

5. Full-time political leader or centralized authority

6. Police and military organizations

ATTRIBUTES PRESENT

1. Small and open communities with face to face interpersonal interactions

2. Egalitarian social structure

3. Generalized reciprocity

4. Social control and decision making through group consensus

5. Nonviolent values and enculturation-socialization

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References:

Bonta, Bruce D., 1993, Peaceful Peoples: An Annotated Bibliography, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Bonta, Bruce D., 1996, "Conflict Resolution Among Peaceful Societies: The Culture of Peacefulness," Journal of Peace Research 33(4):403-420.

Greenhouse, Carol J., 1985, "Meditation: A Comparative Approach," Man 20(1):90-114.

Paige, Glenn D., 1996 (Nov.), "To Leap Beyond Yet Nearer Bring: From War to Non-violence to Non-killing," Peace Research 28(4):1-18.

Sponsel, Leslie E., 1996, "The Natural History of Peace: A Positive View of Human Nature and its Potential," in A Natural History of Peace, Thomas Gregor, ed., Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, pp. 95-125.

Wiberg, Hakan, 1981, "JPR 1964-1980--- What Have We Learned About Peace?" Journal of Peace Research XVIII(2):111-148.