About This Forum: Social Sciences, Moral and Religious

[marct]

Hi M-A,

Yes... Well... I did not try.

LOL - I know - maybe, and it's a big maybe - half a dozen people who have the skill set and attitude necessary to do this. Trying to do something in this line without the skill set and attitude will just get you, and a lot of other people, killed in a really grizzly manner.

What really amazed me in Liberia, at the opposite, was the fact that by deregulating this, Taylor was able to completely disrupt the social tissue.
Before Taylor, many tribes in Liberia were considering that once you have made war, you earn social respect. Basically war was view as a social elevator. Cannibalism (as magic practice) as a political counter power.

I have to wonder why he did it. At a pure, gut level, guess - and please correct me if you know better! - I suspect he thought it was about on par with teenagers fooling around with Satanic rituals.

After Taylor (and during Taylor for me), the populations in the village did not accept the atrocities done by the youth (Who were forced most of the time).
They went too far. And most of the ex fighters, even if they believe they did the right thing, still were unconfortable with what they did.

Yeah, I've run across that one before. It's nasty as all get out and has repercussions for generations. There *might* be a couple of ways to get rid of some of the effects, but I don't know enough about the specifics in Liberia to come up with more than the base structure.

But transforming yourself into a ghost to kill the ennemies was completely accepted...

Sure, why not? Long history of that in Central / West Africa (and other areas, too).

Uganda and Great Lakes, is another story.

Oh, yeah....

Damn, this is getting depressing. I think I'd better turn up the volume on my mp3 player (currently playing Allegri's Miseri Mei).....