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Scott Atran(1)
, CNRS researcher at the Jean Nicod Institut(2) looks
at the reasons for the acts of suicide terrorists from a new angle, that
of the anthropologist and psychologist. More generally, he examines the
management of the period following September 11, 2001. In an article published
in the March 7, 2003 issue of Science(3), he suggests
a new interpretation and calls for research into new solutions.
"Suicide terrorists are neither poor nor ignorant; they do not
feel like they have 'nothing to lose—to the contrary!" Scott
Atran overturns certain views that are widely held in the Western world.
In reality, terrorists are not (overly) representative of an underprivileged
social class. Initiatives to reduce poverty and promote education will
not eliminate terrorism. To accomplish this, it will be necessary to "reinstate
an intercommunity dialogue" and "react to the strong
resentment that certain communities harbor toward the West, feelings of
humiliation inherited through their history ".
Scott Atran challenges behavioralist, economic, and psychological theories.
Society is built around a community, which is in essence a group of kin
("Muslim brothers") and religious figures. Indeed, "religion,
even if it is not anchored in everyone's mind, is anchored in all societies,"
explains Scott Atran. In addition, it tries to explain the absurd, with
the "evolutionary foundations of religion." This understanding
of religious figures in society corresponds to the cognitive description
of all religions, a task Scott Atran undertakes and presents in his most
recent book, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion
(Oxford University Press, 2002 )(4).
According to his analysis, Al-Qaida appears as a global organization that
differs from the terrorist groups identified in the past. As a sort of
global caliphate made up of one hundred million followers in nearly 50
countries, Al-Qaida draws on resources from local groups. It is therefore
possible to intervene in these communities that support the institutions
which recruit terrorists. This is the new angle for analysis and action
suggested by Scott Atran.
He also conducts research into the Amerindians and the Mayas. One essential
aspect of his work concerns the evolutionary and cognitive foundations
of scientific and biological thought. Taking this perspective, with his
teams he has renewed the experiments on classification and reasoning,
in the past conducted using a student population, which is not representative.
(1)Scott
Atran is also a professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for
Social Research
http://www.institutnicod.org/notices.php?user=Atran
(2)Scholars from the Institut Jean Nicod, a research unit
run jointly by the Ecole normale supérieure, Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales and the CNRS, working at the interface between cognitive
science and the humanities and social sciences
http://www.institutnicod.org/
(3)Genesis of Suicide Terrorism, Science, March
7, 2003
(4)This work will soon be published in France by Odile
Jacob.
Researcher
Contact :
Scott Atran
Tel : (734) 936-0458
e-mail : satran@umich.edu
Press contact
:
Magali Sarazin
Tel : +33 1 44 96 46 06
e-mail : magali.sarazin@cnrs-dir.fr
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