The Meaning of Weapons: Material and Discursive Negotiations in Culture and Religion

This book studies the role, representation, and materiality of weapons, focusing on what they mean to communities and individuals in various cultural, social, political, and religious settings.

Drawing on a range of case studies from across the globe, the chapters examine (1) how weapons are understood and used in different social, cultural, religious, theological, and ritual contexts; (2) their role within infrastructures of violence, that is, the socio-material, juridical, and spatial arrangements of weapons that enable or constrain violence; (3) processes of human socialization with weapons; (4) the infliction of violence through weapons; and (5) the representation of weapons in popular culture, games, myths, museums, and monuments.

The volume brings together insights from various disciplines including anthropology, religious studies, philosophy, history, and conflict studies. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for highly needed new theoretical and methodological directions to understand the meaning of weapons in our times.

Lucien van Liere is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Erik Meinema is Assistant Professor in Religion and Heritage at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.