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Attempts to Make Meaning of Terror: Family, Play, and School in Time of Civil War
Author(s) -
Assal Adel,
Farrell Edwin
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1525/aeq.1992.23.4.05x1580t
Subject(s) - boredom , meaning (existential) , identity (music) , sociology , spanish civil war , politics , terrorism , gender studies , emic and etic , criminology , psychology , social psychology , political science , law , aesthetics , philosophy , anthropology , psychotherapist
How Lebanese youth attempted to confer meaning on the events of their lives in the midst of the terror of war was investigated by participant‐observation. An emic view of life for children and adolescents was presented in terms of war, politics, religion, family, play, boredom, career, school, and the acceptance of a warrior identity. Analysis proceeded in terms of identity formation, the internalization of identity, and the effects of the dislocation of life patterns on cultural transmission. Although children rejected politics and were terrified by war, as adolescents they were pushed, in a cycle of war‐induced poverty, to join militias. Becoming a warrior gave one a job, an identity, a way to control terror and relieve boredom.