Experiences, Situations, Representations

It would be fitting to ask: What is the relationship between the lack of credibility, distrust, and the illegitimacy of authority figures, institutions and violence in Colombia? The lack of credibility and distrust of relationships in social life prepare the ground for acts of violence.

These are not provoked immediately, in direct relationship. They are nurtured through fear, distrust, and apprehension in social life, especially in relation to authorities (people and the institutions which represent them). When they confront eventual or effective conflict situations, individuals thus feel defenseless and alone. This is why many flee from that which, in their view, might confront them with possible conflict escalation. They avoid daily interactions such as the ones of the neighborhood, refuse to react to delinquent or other acts of violence witnessed or known about, and remain passive.

Why do crime witnesses remain silent? Why do officials complain about “lack of cooperation with justice”? Is this lack of cooperation similar in other nations? Aren't fearful silence and passivity the result of distrust of authority, and powerful allies of increased forms of violence? Aren't they means of adapting to social life conditions in Colombia? Wouldn't a certain ambivalence towards those who infringe norms—something which is widespread in Colombia—have to do with the notion that authorities fail to transmit regulations clearly, fail to sanction everyone fairly, and, on the contrary, are circumstantial, bribable, and bendable? Besides, reporting transgressions is not only useless but also potentially dangerous, as the reaction of authorities is unpredictable. Does this not open the door to impunity in general, an impunity that in turn reinforces extremely violent groups? Are not passivity, distrust, and fear adaptive in this social context?

On the other hand, it is known that fear can also induce attacks.

Resorting to violence means anticipating an attack by another. Given the failure or disinterest on the part of authorities to mediate in conflicts, attacks can become a defensive and protective mechanism, as does resorting to private forms of “justice,” usually based on violence. Why is it that special private “justice” groups are flourishing today in Colombia, if not because authorities are not trustworthy or credible? Evidently once conflict starts it takes on its own dynamics and tends to feed on and reinforce itself. As a means, violence subjects and devours the ends for which it is used.

In conclusion, it doesn't seem true that witnessing and suffering acts of violence makes Colombians, at least those of low income in the principal cities, insensitive to violence or unable to distinguish it from other social relationships. On the contrary, they draw subtle distinctions, they recognize the ones experienced at home or in the streets, and are moved by the suffering of others. They are hardly indifferent to the acts of violence they have suffered themselves, or to those witnessed on television. Rather, they are affected by the fact that violence and crime, as ruptures of and affronts to the collective conscience, as Durkheim (1893) would have it, are not sanctioned adequately by institutions.

It may be said that in the Colombian case, the frailty of power is the other side of arbitrary authority, and violence prospers in its shadow. In the experiences and conceptions of respondents, in the synthesis of environmental and perceptive complexes, legitimate authority is not recognized because it does not mediate in aggressive situations. Instead, it makes an obscure and ambivalent use of violence itself. This is recognized as might, as external coercion, and as a prerogative of the individual—hence the personal origin attributed to meaningful violence. In this sense, the absence of the state or its weakness is not the reasons for which authorities are not recognized.

The absence of the state forms part of the social aggregate through which authority reaffirms itself using authoritarianism, at home, on the streets, and in society at large. This is why authority, at least for the sector which was studied, is unable to transcend and secure profound legitimacy.

In this social context, the psychological tensions resulting from lack of work, low income, privations, long working hours, and those generated by social inequality, all permit credible justifications for acts of violence at home and away from home. Under these conditions, intimidation or anticipated attacks, or on the contrary, passivity and avoidance, could become adaptive mechanisms. Learning to handle conflicts sets the pattern for dealing with future interactions, where a self-reinforced circle of aggression connects violent responses to self-defensive ones.

Family life is perceived as a fragile entity. Its members are on the verge of disorder, and authority must reaffirm itself with the use of force in anticipation of disrespect. Its means are reprimand and respect. As emotionally dense, cognitive constructions, they explain painful experiences. Victims are offered a guide for action and understanding that helps them face and overcome their suffering. But its ambivalent nature, composed of fear and love, weakens credibility and compliance with authority. Does this conception of family life extend to social life as a whole? The evidence points in this direction.

In varying ritual and secular forms, social systems reiterate that acceptance of the social order goes far beyond obedience, as their permanence is based on this (Fortes and Evans-Pritchard 1979: 100). Ideological validation, the art of theatricality, as Balandier (1994) calls it, is not a simple subordination mechanism or instrumental resource. Instead, the very diverse staging means represent the society that is governed. They also represent its capacity to deal with disorder and with the conflict inherent to human relations.

Failed validation becomes a crack between individuals and their social environment, and is an invitation to violence.

References

Balandier, Georges. (1994). Elpoder en escenas: De la representation delpoder alpo- der de la representation. Barcelona: Editorial Paidos.

Barth, Frederick. (1992). Towards greater naturalism in conceptualizing societies. In Conceptualizing Society, edited by Adam Kuper. London and New York: Routledge.

Bateson, Gregory. (1991). Pasos hacia una ecologi.a de la mente: Una aproximacion revolucionaria a la autocomprension del hombre. Buenos Aires: Planeta.

Durkheim, Emile. (1893/1993). La division del trabajo social. Mexico City: Colofon.

Fortes, Meyer, and E. E. Evans-Pritchard. (1979). Sistemas politicos Africanos. Intro- duccion. In Antropologia Politica, edited by Jose Llobera. Barcelona: Anagrama.

Gibbs, John J. (1986). Situational correlates of aggression. In Violent Transactions: The Limits of Personality, edited by Anne Campbell and John Gibbs, pp. 107-249. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.

Jimeno, Myriam. (1993). Conflicto socialy violencia, notas para una discusion. Memo- rias del Simposio Conflicto Social en America Latina, VI Congreso de Antro- pologia en Colombia, IFEA-Sociedad Antropologica de Colombia, Bogota.

Levi-Straus, Claude. (1983). Le RegardHloigni. Paris: Plon.

Ministerio de Salud, Centro Nacional de Consultoria. (1993). Estudio Nacional de Salud Mental y Consumo de Sustancias Psicoactivas. Informe Preliminar presentado a la Division de Comportamiento Humano por Yolanda Torres de Galvis, Colombia.

Ministerio de Salud, Division de Comportamiento Humano. (1993). Estudio Nacional de SaludMentaly Consumo de Sustancias Psicoactivas: Santafi de Bogota. Resumen Ejecutivo realizado por el Centro Nacional de Consultoria Ltda, Colombia.

Montanez, Sonia Liliana. (1996). Maltrato infantil y castigo fisico. Trabajo para optar por el titulo de antropologa, Programa Curricular de Antropologia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, September.

Peacock, James. (1986). The Anthropological Lens: Harsh Light, Soft Focus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Personeria de Santafe de Bogota, D.C. (1994). Estadisticas de muertes violentas y pre- suntamente violentas: Julio de 1992 a julio de 1994. Santefe de Bogota: Divulga- cion y Prensa Division de Informatica.

Policia Nacional: Sudireccion de Policia Judicial e Investigacion. (1994). Criminalidad 1993, tendencia delincuencial: Primer trimestre de 1994.

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Source: Anderson M. (ed.). Cultural Shaping of Violence: Victimization, Escalation, Response. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press,2004. — 330 p.. 2004

Experiences, Situations, Representations

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