Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Native America And The Question Of Genocide, Amy Fagin

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Liberating Genocide: An Activist Concept And Historical Understanding, Tony Barta

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

From the outset, historians of genocide have seen themselves as activists. Among historians of colonial societies that is what distinguishes them most in relation to indigenous peoples. An ethnographic sensibility should be visible in any such study, and the more so when a question of genocide is raised. After all, if we do not have a sense of difference between peoples we fail the test of genocide at the first hurdle. And if we do not have an ethnographic sensibility towards our own cultures (including academic cultures) we will fail to make the most of our role in affecting deeply …

Killing Them Softly: Forcible Transfers Of Indigenous Children, Ruth Amir

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The forcible transfer of indigenous children in North America and Australia are part of a global phenomenon that consisted of the kidnapping, trafficking, removal, and identity changes of children of particular groups.

Article II(e) of the United Nation Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide prohibits the forcible transfer of children of a group to another group (FTC). The FTC echoes domestic and international legal norms and policies for the protection of children since early twentieth century. Its particular applicability to specific victims within a protected group – children –conveys a unique ethical position compared to the other acts …

“To Rob The World Of A People”: Language Removal As An Instance Of Colonial Genocide In The Fort Alexander Indian Residential School, Natalia Ilyniak

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper demonstrates, through Sagkeeng First Nation narratives, how the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School (FAIRS) is a micro-instance of genocide in the context of language. An understanding is offered from the perspective of a settler colonial academic, in consideration of decolonizing principles. Using relational theory, namely Actor-Network Theory, this paper discusses how FAIRS’s practices were designed and operated to disrupt relations between children and their community by removing Anishinaabe language, and the ways children and their families negotiated and undermined these practices. Data was collected through critical narrative analysis and sociohistoric inquiry to identify and unpack the practice of …

Colonialism And Cold Genocide: The Case Of West Papua, Kjell Anderson

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Conventional understandings of genocide are rooted in the ‘Holocaust model’: intense mass killing directed at the immediate destruction of the group. Yet, such conceptions do not encompass cases of so-called “slow-motion” genocide, where the destruction of the group may occur over generations. The destruction of indigenous groups often follows such a pattern. This article examines the case of West Papua with a view to developing a new analytical model distinguishing high-intensity “hot” genocides, motivated by hate and the victims’ threatening nature, with low-intensity “cold genocides,” rooted in victims’ supposed inferiority.

Book Review: Warning Signs Of Genocide: An Anthropological Perspective, Christopher Powell Ph.D.

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

‘Toxification’ As A More Precise Early Warning Sign For Genocide Than Dehumanization? An Emerging Research Agenda, Rhiannon S. Neilsen

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In genocide scholarship, dehumanization is often considered to be an alarming early warning sign for mass systematic killing. Yet, within broader research, dehumanization is found to exist in a variety of instances that do not lead to aggression or violence. This disparity suggests that while dehumanization is an important part of the genocidal process, it is too imprecise as a salient early warning sign. Genocide scholars have acknowledged such a conjecture in the past. This article initiates an embryonic research agenda that offers ‘toxification’ as a more precise early warning sign for genocide than dehumanization. It contends that while dehumanization …