The intent is to complete a study of violence in its sociocultural contexts in a group of 15,000 Turkana nomadic herders in NW Kenya. They exemplify the paradoxical status violence has in most societies, including the US: sometimes a dangerous threat; sometimes a preferred solution to problems of survival, so a legitimate strategy. Turkana differ from the US in scale, technology, institutional specialization, politico-economic elaboration, and ethnic complexity, but share with the US both an ethos of violence, and an urgent need to control violence - a health hazard - within the society. Turkana low-cost social controls are effective in keeping within-group fights sub-lethal, and provide ideas which (with appropriate changes) may be transferrable. An integrated, holistic analysis of all acts of violence across all levels and domains of the society is proposed; this seems to offer the clearest understanding of the complex causes and situational variability of violence, and of Turkana strategies of its control. The present phase of research would complete a successful NIMH funded field study. It will continue integrating data already acquired; supplement them by limited further field study; and synthesize them in a form useful both to scientists and to those concerned with rethinking the strategies needed for violence control. The immediate tactic is to pursue: event analysis of violent confrontations; cultural analysis of rules relating to different levels and domains of violence; violence career analysis; hazards analysis of demographic data for c 10,000 people; modelling of violence precipitation and control processes; and multi-level analysis of selected violence episodes to show the interplay of ecological, organizational, cultural, psychological, and demographic factors.
