CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

 

Any feature of a culture that can be used to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form is referred to as "cultural violence." Symbolic violence embedded in a culture does not kill or maim like physical violence or structural violence. Cultural violence refers to the presence of pervasive or prominent social standards that make direct and structural violence appear "normal," "right," or at the very least, acceptable. The African slave trade, for example, was sanctioned by the idea that Africans are savage and cognitively inferior to Caucasians.