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Local Peacebuilding After Communal Violence

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The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity

Abstract

This chapter aims to take an anthropologically informed look into local conflict dynamics and local negotiation processes aimed at the restoration of social relations and the reintegration of society after mass violence. It analyzes local processes of peacebuilding taking place independent of international interventions and how local actors inventively adapt local traditions to the requirements of a post-conflict society, thus challenging predominant notions of liberal peace. The chapter builds on current anthropological notions of culture, ethnicity, and tradition and argues that ethnographic research of contemporary local approaches to peace needs to be contextualized in broader history and power politics. The argument derives from multi-sited and multi-temporal ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Maluku, an archipelago in Eastern Indonesia, for more than a decade and highlights the importance of culture and tradition for the restoration of sustainable peace in a society that has been torn apart by an alleged religious war. The response to the long-lasting violence was to activate an overarching ethnic identity to rebuild bridges and restore peace. These efforts are analyzed against the backdrop of changing sociopolitical developments in which group boundaries shift and ethnic and religious identity markers change meanings or merge. The chapter thus also argues against the stereotypification of violent religion and harmonious tradition as both religion and ethnicity are aspects of the same social dynamics.

In this chapter I am drawing on my long-term research on conflict and peace in Eastern Indonesia and related publications, in particular (Bräuchler 2009a, d, 2010, 2014a, c, 2015, 2017b, 2018a, b)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Birgit Bräuchler

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  1. Birgit Bräuchler
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Correspondence to Birgit Bräuchler .

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  1. Dept of Socio & Anthro, Rm 309, Univ of Canterbury Dept of Socio & Anthro, Rm 309, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Steven Ratuva

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  1. No affiliation provided

    Radomir Compel

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Bräuchler, B. (2019). Local Peacebuilding After Communal Violence. In: Ratuva, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_110-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_110-1

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