Citation

Bohle HG. Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 2004; 148(2): 22-31.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The discursive interconnections between culture, territoriality and power as well as the links between religion, identity and ethnicity have become powerful driving forces for social transformations and, more specifically, for widespread forms of social exclusion and territorial conflicts. In a world after the end of the Cold War, they constitute an ideal breeding ground for struggles over space and power, stretching from localized social movements to civil war, from ethnic cleansing to genocide. The example of Sri Lanka serves to unfold the disastrous consequences of territorial politics and ethnic arguments. This contribution develops a model of conflict escalation, conceptualizes ethnic violence in terms of historically situated practice, and reveals how the construction of history, identity and territoriality serves very specific political purposes. In this way the paper tries to elucidate the symbolic "architecture of power" in Sri Lanka, and to interpret and map the horrors of suicide bombings, ethnic atrocities and genocide in terms of "geographies of violence".

Language: de

Keywords

violence; Asia; South Asia; Sri Lanka; cultural influence; ethnic conflict; Eurasia; civil war; Civil war; Ethnic conflict; ethnopolitics; Geography of violence; territoriality