The Social Life of Conflict Narratives

Violent Antagonists, Imagined Histories, and Foreclosed Futures in Aceh, Indonesia

Bibliographic Data

ID2962767
AuthorsElizabeth F Drexler (0000-0002-0904-163X, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume80
Issue4
Pages961-995
Publication date2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-5491 • E-ISSN: 1534-1518
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/anq.2007.0060
OpenAlexW2008963711
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited33

Through an analysis of violent conflict in Aceh, Indonesia, this article develops a series of principles for analyzing conflicts that appear to be intractable, noting how certain conflict narratives and interventions based on them participate in extending conflict. The claim that the separatist rebels called "GAM" exist is treated not as historical fact but as an inscrutable assertion that retrojects and projects the group's continuous existence, allowing political violence to be repeatedly reconstructed through convoluted collusions between antagonists whose own power is each predicated on the existence of the other

Assertion · Conflict resolution · Criminology · Economics · Futures contract · Literature · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Social conflict · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Studies and History · Gender Studies · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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