Dec 10, 2024
Why do we punish people? How did our punishment practices evolve
and what is their primary function? David and Tamler talk about a
new paper that examines punitive justice in three small-scale
societies - the Kiowa equestrian foragers in late 19th century
North America, Mentawai horticulturalists in Indonesia, and Nuer
pastoralists. The authors challenge the dominant view of punishment
as a means of norm enforcement arguing instead that its main
function is reconciliation, restoring cooperative relationships,
and preventing further violence. Get ready for runaway pigs, peace
pipes, wife stealing, banana stealing, black magic, leopard-skin
chiefs, and David maybe finally coming around to restorative
justice.
Plus we choose from a long list of fantastic topic suggestions from
our beloved Patreon supporters and narrow down to six finalists for
the listener selected episode.