The study of wars in Sarajevo and Sri Lanka as well as numerous less publicised conflicts, aim to create a theory of violence as cross-culturally applicable as possible. This book develops a method of cross-cultural analysis.

1 Introduction: violent imaginaries and violent practices 2 The violence in identity Violence as everyday practice and imagination 3 Socio-cosmological contexts and forms of violence: war, vendetta, duels and suicide among the Yukpa of north-western Venezuela 4 The interpretation of violent worldviews: cannibalism and other violent images of the Caribbean 5 The enactment of ‘tradition’: Albanian constructions of identity, violence and power in times of crisis Violence and conflict 6 Violence and culture: anthropological and revolutionary-psychological reflections on inter-group conflict in southern Ethiopia 7 Violent events in the Western Apache past: ethnohistory and ethno-ethnohistory Violence in war 8 When silence makes history: gender and memories of war violence from Somalia 9 A turning point? From civil struggle to civil war in Sri Lanka 10 Predicament of war: Sarajevo experiences and ethics of war