Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T21:15:07.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Toward a more comprehensive theory of self-sacrificial violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Jordan Kiper
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095. [email protected]://www.jordankiper.com
Richard Sosis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269. [email protected]://richard-sosis.uconn.edu/

Abstract

We argue that limiting the theory of extreme self-sacrifice to two determinants, namely, identity fusion and group threats, results in logical and conceptual difficulties. To strengthen Whitehouse's theory, we encourage a more holistic approach. In particular, we suggest that the theory include exogenous sociopolitical factors and constituents of the religious system as additional predictors of extreme self-sacrifice.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al Ramiah, A. & Hewstone, M. (2013) Intergroup contact as a tool for reducing, resolving, and preventing intergroup conflict: Evidence, limitations, and potential. American Psychologist 68(7):527r42. doi: 10.1037/a0032603.Google Scholar
Hinton, A. L. (2004) Why did they kill?: Cambodia in the shadow of genocide. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kiper, J. (2018) Propaganda and mass violence in the Yugoslav Wars: A post-conflict ethnography Doctoral dissertations, 1735. OpenCommons@UConn. University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
Kiper, J. & Sosis, R. (2016a) Shaking the tyrant's bloody robe: An evolutionary perspective on ethnoreligious violence. Politics and the Life Sciences 35:2747.Google Scholar
Kiper, J. & Sosis, R. (2016b) The roots of intergroup conflict and the co-optation of the religious system: An evolutionary perspective on religious terrorism. In: Oxford handbook of evolutionary perspectives on religion, ed. Liddle, J. & Shackelford, T.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leader Maynard, J. & Benesch, S. (2016) Dangerous speech and dangerous ideology: An integrated model for monitoring and prevention. Genocide Studies and Prevention 9(3):70. doi: 10.5038/1911-9933.9.3.1317.Google Scholar
Mamdani, M. (2001) When victims become killers. Princeton University Press. Available at: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7027.html.Google Scholar
Schori-Eyal, N., Klar, Y., Roccas, S. & McNeill, A. (2017) The shadows of the past: Effects of historical group trauma on current intergroup conflicts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 43(4):538–54. doi: 10.1177/0146167216689063.Google Scholar
Sosis, R. & Kiper, J. (2014) Religion is more than belief: What evolutionary theories of religion tell us about religious commitment. In: Challenges to religion and morality: Disagreements and evolution, ed. Bergmann, M. & Kain, P., pp. 256–76. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sosis, R., Phillips, E. J. & Alcorta, C. S. (2012) Sacrifice and sacred values: Evolutionary perspectives on religious terrorism. In: Oxford handbook of evolutionary perspectives on violence, homicide, and war, ed. Shackelford, T. & Weeks-Schackelford, V.. pp. 233–53. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swann, W. B. Jr., Jetten, J., Gómez, Á., Whitehouse, H. & Bastian, B. (2012) When group membership gets personal: A theory of identity fusion. Psychological Review 119(3):441–56. doi: 10.1037/a0028589.Google Scholar