| Posted: Mar. 27 2005,13:58 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
A
modest number of small-scale societies around the world have developed
highly peaceful cultures and social structures. Among these
societies, instances of internal violence or warfare against other
groups are rare or virtually nonexistent. While these people
certainly experience conflicts, they have various ways of resolving
them nonviolently. A notable characteristic of these societies is
that people usually have a lot of respect for others, particularly for
women, children, and the elderly. Most of them highly approve of
harmonious, supportive, giving human interactions. While none of
them are utopias, their strategies for building peacefulness, both
within their societies and in their relationships to other groups, can
be intriguing for anyone interested in developing, as they have,
cultures of peace.
The Peaceful Societies Website
(http://www.peacefulsocieties.org), under development for nearly two
years and opened to the public on January 20, 2005, provides access to
information about the peaceful societies. The Peaceful Societies
Website is designed to complement the Culture of Peace program.
Individuals and groups can gain inspiration for their own efforts
by learning about societies that have already achieved a considerable
measure of peacefulness.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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Since
the development of the Website is entirely based on volunteer time,
progress is slow because we need to learn the skills to manipulate the
numerous, sophisticated software programs used in creating dynamic
websites. Development of additional features on the website, such
as better illustrative materials and an archive of scholarly resources
on the peaceful societies, is moving slowly forward.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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MISSION. The mission of the Peaceful Societies Website (http://www.peacefulsocieties.org)
is to be a reference source for scholars, students, peace activists,
and citizens who are interested in exploring the reasons why a small
number of societies have become quite peaceful, the ways they maintain
their nonviolence, and challenges to their peacefulness.
OBJECTIVES. The first six Website objectives, listed below, have
already been implemented, while the last three are still under
development.
1. To introduce the scholarly literature about
peaceful societies to peace studies, anthropology, sociology and
psychology faculty and students worldwide, to the academic community in
general, and to all interested readers.
2.To provide enough
facts about the phenomenon of peaceful societies to whet visitors’
interests in exploring the Website further.
3.To present brief
encyclopedic articles about selected peaceful societies so that casual
visitors to the website will be enticed into delving into the scholarly
literature on the subject.
4. To encourage users of the Website
to explore specific issues relating to the peaceful societies, such as
gender relations, child-raising strategies, approaches to conflict
resolution, leadership practices, and relationships with other
societies, as a means of developing insights for applications in the
contemporary world.
5. To provide a list of “best books” for book and reading clubs, and people in general, who might be interested in peace topics.
6. To provide a news information service and reviews of current scholarship about peaceful societies.
7. To provide links to other peace studies sites that have a similar focus (under development).
8.
To go beyond the bibliographic introduction of literature by scanning a
selection of leading scholarly resources and making them available on
this Website (under development).
9. To portray on maps the worldwide distribution of peaceful societies (under development).
AUDIENCE. The intended audience for the Website:
1.
Peace studies, anthropology, sociology, and psychology students and
faculty: Many contemporary students are willing to read materials
that they find on the Web, but will not read materials in print format.
2.
Adults with an interest in peace who are intrigued by the concept of
existing peaceful societies. While they may not be willing to
pursue the scholarly literature, they may be interested in reading the
encyclopedia articles on the Website which give specialist information
in an understandable format.
3. People of all ages who fret
about issues of war and peace but who want to go beyond politics to
explore substantial issues of sustainable peacefulness.
ENCYCLOPEDIA. A major feature of the Website is an Encyclopedia of Selected Peaceful Societies (http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/Society/intro.html),
which contains 25 entries of 900 to 1100 words that portray a selection
of the small-scale societies noted for their peacefulness. The
entries provide brief, factual information about the society and a
discussion of the critical issues that relate to their peacefulness.
Some of the topics covered in the articles about the societies
include: beliefs that foster peacefulness; conflict resolution
strategies; gender relations; child-raising patterns; cooperation and
competition; social control; and strategies for avoiding warfare and
violence. Each entry addresses the critical question, “but how
much violence do the really experience?”
NEWS AND REVIEWS. The News and Reviews feature of the Website (http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/News.html)
has normally included two new stories per week: a news post and a
review of a book, journal article, or article in a scholarly anthology.
ACADEMIC
REVIEWERS. Development of the Peaceful Societies Website began in 2003
with the involvement and support of four academic reviewers, in New
York State, Hawaii, Australia, and Finland, two technical advisors in
California and New Jersey, and a webmaster/site designer in
Pennsylvania. These people are all listed on the "About This
Website" page (http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/About.html).
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
It
is essential to step back from the macro-level of international
politics and diplomacy to look at smaller scale societies that have
already developed peaceful cultures, beliefs, educational patterns, and
social structures. International, national, and community leaders
need to reflect on the forces within societies that foster
peacefulness. These peaceful societies should inspire anyone who
is working to build a culture of peace.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
While
the Peaceful Societies Website already has many links to other
organizations and to works specifically focused on the societies
themselves, a broader effort to establish links with other comparable
peace organizations has just been initiated.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
1. We are working to develop mutual links with other websites.
2.
We plan to start contacting authors and copyright holders for
permission to scan articles on the peaceful societies to include in the
Website.
3. We plan to contact people who may have photos of the peaceful societies, to solicit donations for the website.
4. We are working to develop maps for the Website. The first one appeared with a news story on March 24, 2005.
5. We plan to respond to several requests for a filmography, a listing of good films about the peaceful societies.
6.
Later, in a few years, we hope to improve the design of the Website, to
make it appear more graceful and attractive looking.
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Postal address of organization
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PeacefulSocieties.org
c/o Bruce Bonta
P.O. Box 68
Tyrone, PA 16686
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E-mail address of organization
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BruceBonta@PeacefulSocieties.org
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Website address of organization
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http://www.peacefulsocieties.org
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Education for a culture of peace
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Understanding, tolerance, solidarity
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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International
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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