Hey Steve, I was wondering. Is there is a chance to record and/or webcast this for those of us in the FRIAM diaspora?
Cheers, Rich On 16 Jul 2007, at 06:27, Stephen Guerin wrote: > Lawrence Kuznar > Chair, Department of Anthropology > Indiana University/Purdue University > Fort Wayne, IN > > "Anthropology of Terrorism: Modeling How Envy, Humiliation and > Greed Manifest > Violent Conflict in Cross-Cultural Perspective" > > TIME: Wednesday, August 1 @ 12:30 p.m. > LOCATION: Redfish Conference Room, 624 Agua Fria Street, Santa Fe, NM > > Lunch will be available for $5 purchase > > ABSTRACT: > The rise of ethnic conflict and global terrorism has produced new > threats since > the end of the Cold War. These threats largely originate in local > cultural > contexts colored by culturally unique practices, beliefs and > organizations. > Strategic analysts and military officials have recognized the > distributed, > culturally based nature of these new threats and have called to add > "cultural > intelligence" and sensitivity to religious, ethnic, and cultural > sensibilities > to their arsenal; they have put out a call to anthropology, but > there has been > frustratingly little progress. A central dilemma researchers and > policy makers > face is how to generate social theory that is general, but that can > explain a > bewildering array of specific cultural manifestations. I present a > theory of > risk taking that holds the promise of explaining the roots of > conflict in an > extremely wide array of cultural contexts. Key to this approach is a > computational methodology that flexibly identifies key, culture- > specific values, > and measures the degree to which greed or grievance motivates > individuals to > take risks with respect to these values. Applications of this > approach have > included coups in ancient states, political mobilization in > democracies, > revolutions, the rise of nepotistic elites, tribal political > dynamics, terrorist > movements in Palestine, and the internal dynamics among the 911 co- > conspirators. > This method permits modeling of complex social systems, and as > such, encounters > difficult issues for validation, analogous to those encountered > when modeling > complex physical systems. > > > SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY > Dr. Lawrence A. Kuznar is a professor of anthropology from Indiana > University - > Purdue University, Fort Wayne whose specialties include decision > theory, > theories of conflict and terrorism, computational modeling, and the > ecology of > traditional pastoral societies. He has done field research among > Aymara herders > in southern Peru and Navajo sheepherders and cattle ranchers. He > has published > articles in journals such as American Anthropologist, Current > Anthropology, > Human Ecology, Journal of Quantitative Anthropology, Social Science > Computer > Review, and Journal of Anthropological Research, among others. His > book > publications include Reclaiming a Scientific Anthropology (Altamira > Press, > 1996), Awatimarka: The Ethnoarchaeology of an Andean Community > (Harcourt Brace, > 1995), and two edited volumes, Studying Societies and Cultures > (Pergamon Press > 2006) and Ethnoarchaeology in Andean South America (International > Monographs in > Prehistory 2001). His current research focuses on terrorism, > computational > modeling and verification & validation issues in modeling. > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
