This project will support the dissertation research of an anthropology graduate student from Brown University in the Basque region of Spain. The project will study the causes of ethnic conflict by trying to separate the effects of economic from political competition in local communities. Methods include archival and survey research as well as participant observation and in-depth interviewing. This research is important because ethnic conflict is prevalent in many societies in the world. Understanding the causes of such conflict in one case study adds to our comparative literature and helps build theory to explain, and potentially decrease such violence in other situations in the future.
