
Cultural Violence and the Destruction of Human Communities
New Theoretical Perspectives
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Book Description
This volume brings together leading sociologists and anthropologists to break new ground in the study of cultural violence. First sketched in Raphael Lemkin’s seminal writings on genocide, and later systematically defined by peace studies scholar Johan Galtung, the concept of cultural violence seeks to explain why and how language, symbols, rituals, practices, and objects are so frequently in the crosshairs of socio-political change. Recent conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, along with renewed public interest in the repertoire of violence applied to the control and erasure of indigenous populations, highlights the gaps in our understanding of why cultural violence occurs, what it consists of, and how it relates to other forms of collective violence.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Fatma Müge Göçek, University of Michigan and Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia
Part I: Definitions and Parameters
2. The Genocidal Pressures on Indigenous Peoples: Capitalism’s Cultural and Environmental Violence
Damien Short, School of Advanced Studies, University of London
3. Raphaël Lemkin: Genocide, Cultural Violence, and Community Destruction
Douglas Irvin-Erickson, George Mason University
4. Linguistic Genocide
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Abo Akademi University, Finland
Part II: Epistemological Dimensions
5. The Interconnected Histories of South African and American Sociology: Knowledge in the Service of Colonial Violence
Zine Magubane, Boston College
6. Jerusalem and Violence: The transformation of secular and sacred interpretations
Mark Ayyash, Mount Royal University
7. Monumental destruction and ontological violence in the Islamic State
Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia
Part III: Spatial and Material Dimensions
8. Community Destruction, Museum Collections and the Work of Resilience
Alaka Wali, Curator of North American Anthropology, Field Museum
9. Tahrir, and The Many Faces of Violence in the Egyptian Revolution
Atef Said, University of Illinois at Chicago
10. An Unraveling Landscape: Harput and Mezre during Turkey’s Transition from Empire to Republic
Zeynep Kezer, Newcastle University
Editor(s)
Biography
Fiona Greenland is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, USA.
Fatma Müge Göçek is Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies and the University of Michigan, USA.