Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation

Published by Duke University Press 2009

Genocide

Truth, Memory, and Representation

Edited by: Alexander Laban Hinton , Kevin Lewis O'Neill , Neil L. Whitehead , Jo Ellen Fair and Leigh A. Payne

In the series The Cultures and Practice of Violence

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822392361

Overview
Contents

About this book

Leading anthropologists consider issues of truth, memory, and representation in the aftermath of genocides in the Balkans, Guatemala, Indonesia, East Timor, Germany, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Sudan.

Author / Editor information

Alexander Laban Hinton is Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs at Rutgers University, Newark. He is the author of Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide and editor of Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide.

Kevin Lewis O’Neill is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Reviews

“While the volume intends to make a special contribution to anthropology, a wide range of readers will find it fascinating and insightful, including this political scientist.” - Elisabeth King, Human Rights & Human Welfare

“Overall, this book is a useful and equally fascinating read for scholars and students of genocide studies, as well as for those who are otherwise interested in the subject matter. The coherent organization of the chapters, including cross-references between essays, makes it a strong and concise contribution.” - Maria Irchenhauser, H-Net Reviews

“This is an extraordinary book, anthropology at its best, drawing on the extreme to enlighten more common features of memory, representation, and the variability of truth. . . . This well-constructed book will be of interest to many, especially to all social anthropologists who try to grasp the complex intertwining of imagination, action, and comprehension and their individual and societal nexus that the last chapter hints at. Theoretical distance may help them cope with, at times, painful or troubling empathy.” - Danielle de Lame, American Ethnologist

“A timely and relevant collection of essays interrogating genocide’s relationship to the Truth/Memory/Representation triumvirate, this anthology weaves together new and old themes in Genocide Studies while paying attention to underserved genocidal incidents and offering new insights on well-covered events. This makes it a worthy read for an audience with a wide-range of backgrounds and interests.” - Christina M. Morus, Journal for Peace and Justice Studies

“Genocide: Truth, Memory and Representation includes case studies and analyses about individuals worldwide who continue to live in communities and cope in their everyday lives with the aftermath of genocide and other mass violence. And, for the anthropologists who arrive at these places, this volume reveals their difficulties of trying to hear testimony and analyze past and present truths and memories. The essays reveal how complicated, risky but much needed such undertakings are.” - Joyce Apsel, Human Rights Review

“Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation brings the scholarship on genocide to a new level. The editors have assembled a superb group of anthropologists who demonstrate that innovative research and deep, probing questions can also be accompanied by great empathy for victims. Every chapter inspires a rethinking of received categories without ever losing sight of the immense, tragic dimension of genocide.”—Eric D. Weitz, author of A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation

“This volume brings rich historical and contemporary ethnographic material to bear on the urgent task of writing against violence and terror. The volume benefits greatly from the long-term professional commitments of anthropologists working in settings embroiled in violence and engaging with peoples suffering the ongoing sequelae and cycles of genocidal terror.”—Philippe Bourgois, author of In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio and co-editor of Violence in War and Peace

“Genocide: Truth, Memory and Representation includes case studies and analyses about individuals worldwide who continue to live in communities and cope in their everyday lives with the aftermath of genocide and other mass violence. And, for the anthropologists who arrive at these places, this volume reveals their difficulties of trying to hear testimony and analyze past and present truths and memories. The essays reveal how complicated, risky but much needed such undertakings are.”

-- Joyce Apsel Human Rights Review

“A timely and relevant collection of essays interrogating genocide’s relationship to the Truth/Memory/Representation triumvirate, this anthology weaves together new and old themes in Genocide Studies while paying attention to underserved genocidal incidents and offering new insights on well-covered events. This makes it a worthy read for an audience with a wide-range of backgrounds and interests.”

-- Christina M. Morus Journal for Peace and Justice Studies

“Overall, this book is a useful and equally fascinating read for scholars and students of genocide studies, as well as for those who are otherwise interested in the subject matter. The coherent organization of the chapters, including cross-references between essays, makes it a strong and concise contribution.”

-- Maria Irchenhauser H-Net Reviews

“This is an extraordinary book, anthropology at its best, drawing on the extreme to enlighten more common features of memory, representation, and the variability of truth. . . . This well-constructed book will be of interest to many, especially to all social anthropologists who try to grasp the complex intertwining of imagination, action, and comprehension and their individual and societal nexus that the last chapter hints at. Theoretical distance may help them cope with, at times, painful or troubling empathy.”

-- Danielle de Lame American Ethnologist

“While the volume intends to make a special contribution to anthropology, a wide range of readers will find it fascinating and insightful, including this political scientist.”

-- Elisabeth King, Human Rights & Human Welfare

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Genocide, Truth, Memory, and Representation: An Introduction Kevin Lewis O’Neill and Alexander Laban Hinton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1. TRUTH/MEMORY/REPRESENTATION
1. What Is an Anthropology of Genocide? Reflections on Field Research with Maya Survivors in Guatemala Victoria Sanford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. Perilous Outcomes: International Monitoring and the Perpetuation of Violence in Sudan Sharon E. Hutchinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3. Whose Genocide? Whose Truth? Representations of Victim and Perpetrator in Rwanda Jennie E. Burnet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
Part 2. TRUTH/MEMORY/REPRESENTATION
4. A Politics of Silences: Violence, Memory, and Treacherous Speech in Post-1965 Bali Leslie Dwyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
5. The Limits of Empathy: Emotional Anesthesia and the Museum of Corpses in Post-Holocaust Germany Uli Linke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
6. Forgotten Guatemala: Genocide, Truth, and Denial in Guatemala’s Oriente Debra H. Rodman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Part 3. TRUTH/MEMORY/REPRESENTATION
7. Addressing the Legacies of Mass Violence and Genocide in Indonesia and East Timor Elizabeth F. Drexler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
8. Mediated Hostility: Media, Affective Citizenship, and Genocide in Northern Nigeria Conerly Casey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
9. Cleansed of Experience? Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Challenges of Anthropological Representation Pamela Ballinger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Epilogue: The Imagination of Genocide Antonius C. G. M. Robben Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 349
Illustrations
- Other: 19 b&w photographs, 1 table

eBook

Published: April 7, 2009
ISBN: 9780822392361