Factional Terror, Paramilitarism and Civil War in Haiti .Christopher. Kovats-Bernat in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, during the extremely violent civil war ravaging the country. The article discusses in detail the events that led to the civil unrest, taking into consideration many of the political, economic, and cultural influences that sparked the 1994 coup and the resulting ten years of extreme violence . The author, however, attempts to investigate the bloodshed in the country using the methodology developed by anthropologist Carolyn Nordstrom, who believed that war is not a static event but rather one that shapes and is shaped by historical, social and cultural contexts. Kovats-Bernat therefore attempts to investigate the current bloodshed in the country by taking into consideration three distinct questions:; What political advances led to the war, what social aspects characterize the violence of the war, and how did the war affect the daily lives and cultural identities of Haitians? Kovats-Bernat describes the three key concepts he wishes to use in order to conduct such an investigation into the lives of Haitians during the civil war: political history, social analysis of material conditions, and cultural context. However, he does not seem to correctly follow all the definitions he gives for each of these concepts throughout his article, at least not in a way that is concise and easily understood by the reader. Take for example “cultural context”. Kovats-Bernat clearly states that by cultural context he means "individual and community accounts of violence...within a larger symbolic world......middle of article...... the bulk of this academic journal deals primarily with "the political developments that led to the war" (p. 123), and Kovats-Bernat therefore managed to consider at least one of the three aspects he hoped to address. However, it seems to be lacking when it comes to discussing its two other clearly defined key concepts – exactly what the author initially claimed would result in ambiguous, subjective and inaccurate observations. The author has failed to put an individual or community “face” to the problem and seems to focus more on history than ethnography. If he had instead succeeded in presenting the political history of Haiti as well as conducting a more in-depth social analysis of material conditions and a discussion of the cultural context, I would have a much more solid basis on which to express my confidence in evidence..

Essay / Factional Terror, Paramilitarism and Civil War in Haiti .Christopher. Kovats-Bernat in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, during the extremely violent civil war ravaging the country. The article discusses in detail the events that led to the civil unrest, taking into consideration many of the political, economic, and cultural influences that sparked the 1994 coup and the resulting ten years of extreme violence . The author, however, attempts to investigate the bloodshed in the country using the methodology developed by anthropologist Carolyn Nordstrom, who believed that war is not a static event but rather one that shapes and is shaped by historical, social and cultural contexts. Kovats-Bernat therefore attempts to investigate the current bloodshed in the country by taking into consideration three distinct questions:; What political advances led to the war, what social aspects characterize the violence of the war, and how did the war affect the daily lives and cultural identities of Haitians? Kovats-Bernat describes the three key concepts he wishes to use in order to conduct such an investigation into the lives of Haitians during the civil war: political history, social analysis of material conditions, and cultural context. However, he does not seem to correctly follow all the definitions he gives for each of these concepts throughout his article, at least not in a way that is concise and easily understood by the reader. Take for example “cultural context”. Kovats-Bernat clearly states that by cultural context he means "individual and community accounts of violence...within a larger symbolic world......middle of article...... the bulk of this academic journal deals primarily with "the political developments that led to the war" (p. 123), and Kovats-Bernat therefore managed to consider at least one of the three aspects he hoped to address. However, it seems to be lacking when it comes to discussing its two other clearly defined key concepts – exactly what the author initially claimed would result in ambiguous, subjective and inaccurate observations. The author has failed to put an individual or community “face” to the problem and seems to focus more on history than ethnography. If he had instead succeeded in presenting the political history of Haiti as well as conducting a more in-depth social analysis of material conditions and a discussion of the cultural context, I would have a much more solid basis on which to express my confidence in evidence..

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