Secular Sunday - May 05,2013

Become a vital supporter of our shows, micro-donate to the Rooster Booster Fund. Todays 5th May, 2013 episode includes: From Point of Inquiry hosted by Chris Mooney: Back in the summer of 2011—just before the 10 year anniversary of 9/11—this show welcomed on Scott Atran, an anthropologist who is a leading expert on terrorism and violent extremism. Now, in the wake of the Boston bombings and the dramatic capture of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, we called Atran back to discuss the first large scale U.S. terrorist bombing since 9/11. As Atrans research shows, the Tsarnaev brothers share many parallels with other young, disaffected men who opt for extremist violence around the world. ... And from the New Books Network hosted today by Marshall Poe: Most people today think of war–or really violence of any sort–as for the most part useless. It's better, we say, just to talk things out or perhaps buy our enemies off. And that usually works. But what if you lived in a culture where fighting was an important part of social status and earning a living? What if, say, you couldn't get married unless you had gone to war? What if, say, you couldn't feed your family without raiding your enemies? Such was the case with Chiricahua Apache of the Southwest. As Lance R. Blyth shows in his terrific book Chirichahua and Janos: Communities of Violence in the Southwestern Borderlands, 1680-1880 (Nebraska UP, 2012), war was a necessary part of Chiricahua life, at least in the 17th and 18th centuries. They needed to fight the Spanish in Janos, and there was nothing the Spanish could really do to stop them, at least in the long term. ... Listen to Lance tell the fascinating story. Harpsichord music provided by Joyce Lindorff. Some readings by volunteers at Libris Vox as time allows.

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