Overwhelming Terror
eBook - ePub

Overwhelming Terror

Love, Fear, Peace, and Violence among Semai of Malaysia

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Overwhelming Terror

Love, Fear, Peace, and Violence among Semai of Malaysia

About this book

This powerful ethnography of a people believed to be the least violent in the world explores how they maintain peaceful relations even under the most dire circumstances. Robert Knox Dentan, the world's foremost scholar of Semai, brings its members vividly to life. His book includes translations of their poetry, dramatized accounts of particular events, and extensive quotations from a wide range of individuals. In a clear, gripping, sometimes novelistic style, Dentan introduces the reader to tortured Nakhoda; beautiful, stubborn Kliy; witty, ironic Grcaangsmother; doomed Rmpent; brutal, alienated Juni; and other memorable Semai.

The book opens with the horrific circumstances that the author argues gave rise to Semai peaceability, continues by illuminating their adaptation to those circumstances, and closes by sketching the eventual decline of that adaptation under the pressures of globalization. Unlike many behavioral scientists, Dentan argues that the Semai approach to conflict is a successful Darwinian adaptation. A recurring theme is the importance of psychological "surrender" to maintaining this adaptation. Throughout, the author highlights the mechanisms and costs of peace, underscoring their relevance to everyday life in all societies. Students and scholars of peace studies, conflict resolution, ethnography, and Southeast Asia will find this unique work an invaluable and compelling study.

Coda to Chapter 6: "'Surrender,' Peacekeeping, and Internal Colonialism: A Neglected Episode in Malaysian History," by Juli Edo, Anthony Williams-Hunt, and Robert Knox Dentan (PDF)

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Yes, you can access Overwhelming Terror by Robert Knox Dentan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Asian History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Preface
  2. Thanks
  3. Introduction: Writing Someone Else's Life
  4. 1 Spotted Doves at War: The Praak Sangkiil
  5. 2 Regrettable Undertakings: A Dirty Joke, a War, a Vacancy
  6. 3 Responding to Terror: Intellectually, Emotionally, Spiritually
  7. 4 Transforming Demons by Love and Surrender
  8. 5 Ceremonies of Innocence and “Positive” Peace
  9. 6 Freedom: Just Say “No”
  10. 7 For Fear of Finding Something Worse: Raising Kids
  11. 8 Juni Gone Astray
  12. 9 Inconclusion
  13. Glossary
  14. Bibliography
  15. About the Author