Abstract
D.Litt et. Phil.
Poverty and violence are among the most provocative social
problems in the present South African context. This study
attempts to contribute to our understanding of the
complexity of violence in the context of poverty on a microlevel
and to explore urban Anthropology as a field of
knowledge.
The phenomena in question were elucidated conceptually with
reference to the literature on poverty and violence. The
multilevel manifestation of poverty supplied the context
within which the nature, forms and manifestations of
violence could be analyzed in its various contexts and in
various social categories. To understand violence as a
social phenomenon various theoretical perspectives have been
discussed. Patriarchy, social learning, resource, exchange,
sociobiological and social conflict theories, culture, norms
and the ,context were explored as possible instruments of
explanation.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection
were used. All the Standard 7 pupils (N=76) of the local
school completed an open as well as a self-concept
questionnaire, while 38% of the heads of households (N=235)
completed questionnaires. Ethnographic data were collected
by making use of participant observation, reports, diaries
and essays, as well as interviews and case studies. Sixteen
children and three adults in turn kept diaries and wrote
reports during the research period of three and a half
years. Research was undertaken in Davidsonville, a so-called
Coloured township on the West Rand. The insufficient
infrastructure, educational and employment opportunities, as
well as social prOblems such as alcoholism and unemployment,
were mainly products of structural violence and causes of
everyday violence and poverty: Domestic and non-domestic
violence in terms of their physical and psychic
manifestations, were described, analyzed and contextualized
ethnographically in the light of poverty and Coloured status
in the South African context.
Violence, as a process in the social relations of
individuals and groups, manifests on various levels, viz.
among men and women, adults and children, gangs and members
of various "ethnic groups" as well as in various situations
(the stokvel, school, public places, and the home).
Violence is a universal human characteristic, but the
context of poverty exposes man to the chronic experience of
violence which causes psychological scars. Poverty is
violence, and the fewer the resources available to an individual, the fiercer the competition and the more brutal
the face of violence will be.