"Root Causes": The Inversion of Causes and Consequences in Civil War

Højbjerg, Christian K., Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe : JEMIE

Introduction

It appears as something of a paradox in the social sciences of culture, such as anthropology which is the discipline I represent in these pages, when scholars refuse vehemently to consider the role of culture in causing and sustaining organised, violent conflict2. One major reason for disclaiming culture as a causal mechanism in the outbreak and course of armed conflicts resides in the fact that anthropologists and others take pains to dissociate their approach to culture from the so-called culturalist explanations of the many small, new wars in the post-Cold War era. A number of political scientists and some journalists writing for a larger audience have thus become …

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Publication information: Article title: "Root Causes": The Inversion of Causes and Consequences in Civil War. Contributors: Højbjerg, Christian K. - Author. Journal title: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe : JEMIE. Issue: 2 Publication date: July 1, 2009. Page number: 1+. © Not available. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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