Description
Book SynopsisLeading 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.
Trade Review“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 *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Genocide, Truth, Memory, and Representation: An Introduction / Kevin Lewis O'Neill and Alexander Laban Hinton 1
Part 1. Truth/Memory/Representation
1. What Is an Anthropology of Genocide? Reflections on Field Research with Maya Survivors in Guatemala / Victoria Sanford 29
2. Perverse Outcomes: International Monitoring and the Perpetuation of Violence in Sudan / Sharon E. Hutchinson 54
3. Whose Genocide? Whose Truth? Representations of Victim and Perpetrator in Rwanda / Jennie E. Burnet 80
Part 2. Truth/Memory/Representation
4. A Politics of Silences: Violence, Memory, and Treacherous Speech in Post-1965 Bali / Leslie Dwyer 113
5. The Limits of Empathy: Emotional Anesthesia and the Museum of Corpses in Post-Holocaust Germany / Uli Linke 147
6. Forgotten Guatemala: Genocide, Truth, and Denial in Guatemala's Oriente / Debra Rodman 193
Part 3. Truth/Memory/Representation
7. Addressing the Legacies of Mass Violence and Genocide in Indonesia and East Timor: Truth, Memory, and Corruption / Elizabeth Drexler 219
8. Mediated Hostility: Media, Affective Citizenship, and Genocide in Northern Nigeria / Conerly Casey 247
9. Cleansed of Experience? Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Challenges of Anthropological Representation / Pamela Ballinger 279
Epilogue: The Imagination of Genocide / Antonius C. G. M. Robben 317
Contributors 333
Index 339
