Collective Memory of Physical Violence: its Contribution to the Culture of Violence

Abstract

Many social scientists suggest that intergroup conflicts are an inevitable part of human social life (for example, Coser, 1956; Levi-Strauss, 1958; Burton, 1969; Galtung, 1969; Mitchell, 1981). Indeed, the history of civilisation is filled with continuous and numerous intergroup conflicts,* and the twentieth century has witnessed some of the most vicious and atrocious inter-ethnic and international conflicts in history (see, for example, the list of conflicts published by Richardson, 1960; Beer, 1981).