Read: Hinton. ed., Annihilating Difference, chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 13

1. What are some of the definitions for genocide that Hinton discusses? What are the consequences of each? Which do you prefer, and why?

2. What are some of the ways that anthropology might contribute to our understanding of genocide? How might anthropological knowledge of culture and ideas about cultural relativism also be implicated in genocide?

3. Hinton writes, "Genocide, in other words, is a product of, not an aberration from, modern social life" (27). Do you agree? What features (material, political, and ideological) of modernity seem to have prompted genocide or created contexts where genocide might erupt?

4. According to Arnold, how is archaeology connected to assertions of nationalism that might fuel genocide?

5. What role did symbolic meanings about body and community play in the Rwandan genocide of 1994? What particular techniques of killing and torture were used, and why? What links does Taylor draw (and not draw) between culture, history, and violence?

6. Taylor concludes his article, "The symbols that lie at the core of the Rwandan culture cannot be reduced to simple surrogates for political action and struggle; they must be examined on their own right. Nor should these symbols be seen as antagonistic to human agency, for in many ways they were constitutive of it" (173). What does he mean?

7. How, according to Bringa, were the terms genocide, ethnic cleansing, and "centuries-old hatred" used in descriptions of Bosnia-Herzegovina? With what effects?

8. What factors seem to Bringa most important to consider in explaining the emergence of violence and ethnic nationalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s? Can his analysis be applied to other contexts with which you are familiar?

9. What are the lingering effects of genocide in Cambodia? In Guatemala? What similarities and differences do you see between these cases?

10. According to Nagengast, how might the US-Mexico border present a situation of genocidal priming? What are the analytical advantages and disadvantages of describing the border in these terms?

Journal Entry #7: Anthropology and Genocide (due in class on March 26 and by email to aleshkow[at]holycross.edu).

How might anthropology be connected to genocide, both as a tool that may be used for what Hinton calls "genocidal priming," and as a means to understand the causes and consequences of genocide? How might anthropology help us to understand contemporary situations that have erupted or threaten to erupt into genocide?

To address this question, find an article in the newspaper or a news magazine that has been published this year which reports on a hostile situation with genocidal (or potentially genocidal) components. How might one or more of the anthropological perspectives offered in Hinton's volume (be specific) help us to understand the situation? What questions do we need to ask about what is going on? Do you see any evidence that anthropology might be implicated in making the situation worse? Be sure to hand in a hard copy of the article with your journal entry.

For more information, contact: aleshkow@holycross.edu