Digital Commons Network^™

‘Reclamation Road’: A Microhistory Of Massacre Memory In Clear Lake, California, Jeremiah J. Garsha

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article is a microhistory of not only the massacre of the indigenous Pomo people in Clear Lake, California, but also the memorialization of this event. It is an examination of two plaques marking the site of the Bloody Island massacre, exploring how memorial representations produce and silence historical memory of genocide under emerging and shifting historical narratives. A 1942 plaque is contextualized to show the co-option of the Pomo and massacre memory by an Anglo-American organization dedicated to settler memory. A 2005 plaque is read as a decentering of this narrative, guiding the viewer through a new hierarchy of …

Moving Beyond The Crossroads: Strengthening The Atrocity Prevention Board, James P. Finkel

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

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

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Unsettling Genocide Studies At The Eleventh Conference Of The International Association Of Genocide Scholars, July 16-19, 2014, Winnipeg-Canada, Andrew Woolford

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

What is the purpose of a genocide conference and in what ways might such a conference "unsettle" us and contribute to a broader decolonizing project, in genocide studies and beyond? This summary of the Eleventh Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada examines some of the disruptions and connections that arose and contributed to the vitality of our meetings.

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 …

Full Issue 9.2

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

What Does Genocide Produce? The Semantic Field Of Genocide, Cultural Genocide, And Ethnocide In Indigenous Rights Discourse, Jeff Benvenuto

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The semantic field of genocide, cultural genocide, and ethnocide overlaps between Indigenous rights discourse and genocide studies. Since the 1970s, such language has been used to express grievances that have stimulated the construction of Indigenous rights in international law. These particular words signify general concerns with the integrity of Indigenous peoples, thereby undergirding a larger framework of normative beliefs, ethical arguments, and legal claims, especially the right to self-determination. Going back to the post-World War II era, this article traces the normative and institutional processes through which this overlapping discourse has emerged. Culminating with the adoption of the …

Guest Editors' Introduction To The Special Issue, Tricia Logan, David B. Macdonald

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

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.

Genocide's Aftermath: Neostalinism In Contemporary Crimea, Greta Uehling

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The Crimean Tatars’ genocide is one of the clearest, and yet least studied of twentieth-century genocides. This article explores that genocide’s aftermath, beginning with the Crimean Tatars’ attempts to reinscribe their presence in their historic homeland following the 1944 deportation. The ongoing contestations over the past are examined here as a historical habitus informing attitudes and behavior in the present. Drawing on unparalleled interview data with the Russian-speaking population in Crimea, I explore the durability and ontological resonance of constructions of Tatars as traitors both past and present. Ethnographic insight into the local understandings that feed exclusion, discrimination, and hatred …

Crimean Tatars From Mass Deportation To Hardships In Occupied Crimea, Karina Korostelina

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The article begins with a description of the deportation of Crimean Tatars. It provides a brief review of the Nazi Occupation of Crimea, examines the negative images of Crimean Tatars published in Soviet newspapers between 1941-1943 and the explicit rationale given by the Soviet authorities for the deportation of Crimean Tatars, and reviews the mitigation of hostilities against Tatars in the years following the war. The article continues with accounts of the attempts to repatriate Crimean Tatars after 1989 and the discriminative policies against the returning people. The conclusion of the article describes current hardships experienced by Tatars in occupied …

Film Review: Ida, Jack Palmer

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 …

Book Review: The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook On The Famine Of 1932–1933 In Ukraine, Laura C. Collins

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The Process Of Othering From The “Social Imaginaire” To Physical Acts: An Anthropological Approach, Anthonie Holslag

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article deals with the underlining aspects of Othering within the genocidal process of the Armenian genocide. It will emphasize that Othering is closely related to another process called Selfing, which gives an insight on the genocidal behavior of perpetrators. The article tries to combine these analytical processes with physical actions, and will thereby argue that these physical actions do not stand by themselves, but are indeed cultural expressions of Othering and Selfing; and that these processes are therefore not mere social imagnaire or abstract notions, but physical and thereby observable actions that gives an insight in genocidal intent. These …

The Thesis Of Norm Transformation In The Theory Of Mass Atrocity, Paul Morrow

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Theoretical accounts of genocide and mass atrocity commonly embrace the thesis of norm transformation. This thesis holds, first, that individual and institutional participation in such crimes is at least partially explained by transformations in basic norms that structure social and political life. It holds, second, that preventing future occurrences of such crimes requires changing norms that currently govern the actions of particular individual and institutional actors. This paper clarifies, defends, and extends the thesis of norm transformation. It clarifies this thesis by providing a general account of the nature and dynamics of norms. It defends this thesis against charges of …

A Double Dispossession: The Crimean Tatars After Russia’S Ukrainian War, Stephen Blank

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Genocide and genocidal political processes have been used by the Russian state for decades—if not centuries—as a technique of self-colonial rule intended to eliminate “dissident” ethnic identities. Within this context, the historical fate of the Crimean Tatars is surely a unique one. Despite Soviet obstructions, the Crimean Tatars eventually returned to their homeland in Crimea after suffering forced deportations and genocide at the hands of the Soviet government. Now, 70 years after their deportation and genocide by Stalin, the Crimean Tatars are still fighting for justice. Defined as an autonomous group in their own land under the Ukrainian government, the …