Joking for peace social organization, tradition, and change in gambian conflict management

Abstract

The anthropological literature of the 20th century portrays joking kinship as promoting social cohesion and conflict mitigation. Social science has largely repudiated structural-functional ism, however, and given the rapid pace of globalization and contemporary knowledge about the elastic nature of tradition, an investigation the contemporary significance of these relationships in peacemaking is warranted. This paper examines the contemporary role of joking ties in Gambian conflict management. Special affinities such as joking kinship played a prominent role in mitigating conflicts, indicating that rural Gambians confronting changing conditions continue to draw upon familiar societal patterns. That finding has implications for conflict resolution in the West and elsewhere. Top-down mediation efforts have failed to resolve many prominent conflicts and the mixed results of Western-led peacebuilding efforts have produced a growing interest in peacemaking at the local level. Analyzing how groups and individuals mediate in different societal contexts, and identifying universal and particular aspects of the mediation process can shed new light on the age-old challenge of peacemaking. Gambians' use of special affinities in moderating disputing offers a variety of lessons for those interested in refining conflict resolution praxis.