The ways in which conflicts are understood and acted upon show a significant degree of variation from one social context to another. In this course we will explore the cultural processes that create this variation. We use ethnographic material that is often the result of at least a year of field work, where the researcher observes and participates in the social and cultural life of the particular group. We will read ethnographies about a diverse set of contexts such as Mexico, Iran, Turkey, New Guinea and urban America. Main questions that inform class discussions are; what are the different notions of justice -including fairness, equity etc.- deployed in different cultural contexts? What is the relation of these different notions to the particular methods and mechanisms of resolving conflicts? How are these meanings and practices of justice related to the re-making of structural hierarchies-such as gender, age, status- in the given collectivity?
