Includes bibliographical references (pages 332-362) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: the social anatomy of fighting -- 1. The body and the mind: biology and close-range violence -- 2. Profiting from fighting: the economics of micro-level violence -- 3. Clashing beliefs: the ideological fighters -- 4. Enforced fighting: coercing humans into violence -- 5. Fighting for others: the networks of micro-bonds -- 6. Avoiding violence: the structural context of non-fighting -- 7. Social pugnacity in the combat zone -- 8. Organisational power and social cohesion on the battlefield -- 9. Emotions and close-range fighting -- 10. Killing in war: the emotional dynamics of social pugnacity -- 11. The future of close-range violence -- Conclusion: the sociality of fighting.
Summary:
"This book offers a novel, sociological, answer to the old age question: 'Why humans fight?'. Instead of focusing on the motivations of solitary individuals Malešević emphasises the centrality of social and historical contexts that make fighting possible. He argues that fighting is not an individual attribute, but a social phenomenon shaped by one's relationships with other people. Drawing on the recent scholarship across variety of academic disciplines and his own interviews with the former combatants Malešević shows that one's willingness to fight is a contextual phenomenon shaped by specific ideological and organisational logic. The book explores the role biology, psychology, economics, ideology, and coercion play in one's experience of fighting and emphasises the cultural and historical variability of combativeness. Using numerous historical and contemporary examples from all over the world Malešević demonstrates how social pugnacity is a relational and contextual phenomenon that possesses autonomous features"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.