THE RELEVANCE OF CULTURE FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ETHNIC-CONFLICT

There is a powerful tension between the context-specific analyses whic h figure prominently in the social sciences in recent years and the em phasis on universal human dynamics which characterizes cross-cultural psychology. Using the example of ethnic conflict I seek to bridge the two and suggest that underlying the thick description of single confli cts as the parties understand them is what an earlier generation of ps ychological anthropologists called ''the psychic unity of mankind,'' r eferring to deep structural similarities in all cultures, which make u s human (Spiro, 1987). I propose that a cultural analysis of ethnic co nflict can effectively build an explanation putting each conflict in a context which highlights what the parties believe is at stake; identi fying both the concrete interests and threats to identity crucial to t he disputants; linking interests and identities to psychocultural inte rpretations and the motives underlying them; and proposing that succes sful settlement of ethnic conflicts means that the parties themselves must actively work toward proposals which address both their competing interests and cope identity needs.