Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pillage As The Political Economy Of The Kurdish Anfal Genocide, Kaziwa Salih

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Scholars are critical of how economists overlook “the questions of genocide,” and of how legislatures have not paid adequate attention to the subject of looting, except in the case of the Armenian genocide. This article, informed by interdisciplinary perspectives, uses government documents, data, and semi-structured interviews to discuss the overlooked triangle of looting, economics, and the Anfal genocide of the Kurds in Iraq. The study refuses to limit itself only to the eight stages of the Anfal genocide that started in 1988, and instead offers data on its preliminary phases which occurred earlier in the 1980s. It then discusses the …

Pinpointing Patterns Of Violence: A Comparative Genocide Studies Approach To Violence Escalation In The Ukrainian Holodomor, Kristina Hook

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article utilizes the case study of the 1930s Ukrainian Holodomor, an artificially induced famine under Joseph Stalin, to advance comparative genocide studies debates regarding the nature, onset, and prevention of large-scale violence. Fieldwide debates question how to 1) distinguish genocide from other forms of large-scale violence and 2) trace genocides as unfolding processes, rather than crescendoing events. To circumvent unproductive definitional arguments, methodologies that track large-scale violence according to numerically-based thresholds have substituted for dynamics-based analyses. Able to address aspects of the genocide puzzle, these methodologies struggle to incorporate cross-cultural contextual variation or elicit ripe moments for specific, real-time …

“We Planted Rice And Killed People:” Symbiogenetic Destruction In The Cambodian Genocide, Andrew Woolford, Wanda June, Sereyvothny Um

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In recent years, genocide scholars have given greater attention to the dangers posed by climate change for increasing the prevalence or intensity of genocide. Challenges related to forced migration, resource scarcity, famine, and other threats of the Anthropocene are identified as sources of present and future risk, especially for those committed to genocide prevention. We approach the connection between the natural and social aspects of genocide from a different angle. Our research emanates out of a North American Indigenous studies and new materialist rather than Euro-genocide studies framework, meaning we see the natural and the social (or cultural) as inseparable, …

Arts & Literature: The Many Faces Of Hope, Fiza Lee-Winter

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Remembrance And Forgiveness: Global And Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Genocide And Mass Violence, Amina Hadžiomerović

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The volume Remembrance and Forgiveness, edited by Ajlina Karamehić-Muratović and Laura Kromják, brings together a diversity of disciplines, authors, and cultural contexts to discuss the legacies of the post-Holocaust era genocides by focusing on the (de)mobilisation of memory in seeking truth, justice, and forgiveness. The book provides a compendious overview of the social, historical, and political contexts behind the insurgencies and gives a better sense of understanding of (the obstacles to) the healing process and reconciliation in the global frame.

Book Review Of Eating Nafta: Trade, Food Policies, And The Destruction Of Mexico By Alyshia Gálvez, Laura Kihlstrom

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

This is a book review of the book 'Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico' by Alyshia Gálvez.

Transmission And Erosion Of Local Knowledge Practices In A Fishing Village In South India, Dalibandhu Pukkalla Mr, Sharma Bv Prof

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Fishermen acquire knowledge through kin or other members of the community in an informal way, as well as through personal experience. The knowledge thus acquired is viewed as an asset, but the dangers of its erosion are well understood by the fisher communities. This study documents local knowledge based on the experience, observation, and experimentation of the Jalari fishing community in South India. We focus on wave/ocean colors, sea currents, reading the weather, and availability of fishes in different seasons. Cultural transmission and factors potentially influencing the sustenance and erosion of knowledge practices are briefly considered.

Participatory Mapping With High-Resolution Satellite Imagery: A Mixed Method Assessment Of Land Degradation And Rehabilitation In Northern Burkina Faso, Colin Thor West, Elisabeth Kago Ilboudo Nébié, Aaron J. Moody

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Sahelian West Africa is a region that has high population densities and that has frequent severe droughts and enormous pressure on natural resources. Because of these challenges, it is the place where the term desertification was originally coined. Recently, however, experts have identified large zones of greening where the amount of vegetation exceeds what one would expect based on rainfall alone. This pattern is well documented, but its mechanisms remain poorly understood. This research employs participatory mapping linked with high-resolution satellite imagery to better understand the human role behind regional vegetation trends. Through a case study of three communities in …

Yellowtail Snapper: Human-Ecological Relationships In The South Florida Fishery, Brent Stoffle, Amanda D. Stoltz

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

In 2018 over a period of five months researchers from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) conducted a study with fishermen and local business owners who participate in the South Florida Yellowtail snapper fishery. Fishermen were asked about changes in their targeting strategies over the last several decades; and they perceive these changes to have altered the health and the biology of the snapper species. The changes are perceived as partially responsible for improving both the overall abundance of Yellowtail and having sped up its the growth and reproductive cycles. This is a case where …

Re-Assessing The Genocide Of Kurdish Alevis In Dersim, 1937-38, Dilşa Deniz

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article discusses a century-long denial of historic genocide targeting Kurdish Alevis in Turkey. Firstly, I argue that the state-sponsored killings and forced displacements that occurred in Dersim in 1937-38 constitute genocide. Secondly, I use census numbers and other available documentation to suggest a possible figure for the causalities, while pointing out the methods by which the state has tried to cover up these numbers, indicating state planning and preparation. Finally, I show that as a part of the continued denial of such genocide, Turkish leftist organizations have been manipulated by the state, and thus have ended up supporting much …

“You Feel Like You Belong Nowhere”: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence And Social Identity In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Myriam Denov, Laura Eramian, Meaghan C. Shevell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Globally, the systematic use of sexual violence in modern warfare has resulted in the birth of thousands of children. Research has begun to focus on this often invisible group and the obstacles they face, including stigma, discrimination and exclusion based on their birth origins. Although sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide has been documented on a massive scale, little research has focused on the relational dynamics between mothers who experienced genocide rape and the children they bore. This paper explores the post-genocide realities of these two under-explored populations, revealing two key tensions in relation to identity-building and belonging. Drawing upon …

Book Review: Rejoinder: Anthropology, Critique, And Justice In Translation, Alexander Hinton

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Critical Genocide And Atrocity Prevention Studies, Andrew Woolford, Alexander Hinton

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

An introductory essay for the special issue on "Critical Approaches to Genocide and Atrocity Prevention."

Toxic Tropics: Purity And Danger In Everywhere In Everyday Life, Liza Grandia

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

In contrast to popular images of the tropics as verdant Edens, forest dwellers face various pollutants with little-understood environmental health impacts. Drawing upon long-term ethnographic research in northern Guatemala through the lens of Mary Douglas' work on purity, danger, and culture, this paper describes how the inventive re-use of modern waste exposes rural people to new and unknown toxic substances from “matter out of place.” While environmental justice literature has emphasized industrial, extractive, and military disasters, this note draws attention to the less dramatic yet lethal pollutants encountered in the everyday lives of the rural poor through “chemical trespass.”

The Ultimatum Game: An Introduction To Quantitative Literacy In A Social Justice Context, Robert G. Root

Numeracy

The Ultimatum Game is a two-person, multiple-strategy game widely used in the experimental social sciences to demonstrate the human propensity for costly punishment in response to inequitable treatment. The game serves to provide quantitative evidence for a diversity of fairness norms across cultures. The play of the game and its interpretation offer nuanced views of the nature and importance of quantitative literacy. Its use in a writing seminar connecting quantitative literacy and social justice is described.

Book Review: Making Ubumwe: Power, State And Camps In Rwanda’S Unity-Building Project, Simon Turner

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Forced Confrontation: The Politics Of Dead Bodies In Germany At The End Of World War Ii, Christiane K. Alsop

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Going To School In The Forest: Changing Evaluations Of Animal-Plant Interactions In The Kichwa Amazon, Jeffrey T. Shenton

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

For rural, indigenous communities the ways structural modernization, exposure to Western-scientific epistemologies, and formal schooling affect environmental reasoning remain unclear. For one Kichwa community in the Napo region of Ecuador, daily routines have re-oriented toward formal schooling but environmental learning opportunities remain intact. Here, while a Species Interaction Task elicited consensus across ages on inferred ecological interactions, younger people reasoned differently than older people: for them, animal interactions with flora were considered damaging, not neutral. Aspirational practices like schooling can thus reorient environmental reasoning, even in contexts in which young people share cultural understandings of local ecological relationships with adults.

Karma After Democratic Kampuchea: Justice Outside The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Caroline Bennett

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article considers ways people in Cambodia narrate the Khmer Rouge regime and its genocide outside the bounds of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). Based on anthropological fieldwork, I explore how informants use ‘karma’ to discuss the genocide, and by doing so create their own understandings and lived experiences of that period of historical violence, understandings that do not fit neatly into the narrative modes created by the courts. By stepping outside the court, I consider ways of dealing with the genocide that exist beyond the international framework of transitional justice, thereby asking wider questions of …

Book Review: The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story Of Indian Enslavement In America, Emily A. Willard

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Steeped In Heritage: The Racial Politics Of South African Rooibos Tea, Sarah Bradley

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Denial In Other Forms, Paul N. Avakian

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Conventional understandings of denial are rooted in the analysis of language used to negate claims of genocide, and shed little light on the effects of denial beyond words heard or read. Is denying the crime only concerned with refuting its occurrence? Is there more at stake in denying genocide crimes than a lack of mutuality over whether it happened? To deny a crime is to deny what is owed those harmed by the crime, and this involves accountability and restitution according to relevant law. Written or spoken words that reject outright, re-characterize, confuse, or shift blame bring harm on an …

Rain Rituals As A Barometer Of Vulnerability In An Uncertain Climate, L. Jen Shaffer

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Researchers and aid agencies, seeking to improve their understanding of local climate change responses, adaptation, and vulnerability, frequently interact with communities around the world who strongly emphasize their religious beliefs and practices. Dismissal and misunderstandings of these local perspectives can slow assessments of local climate vulnerability and development of adaptive capacity. In this paper, I show how analysis of rain ritual failure exposes the multiple stressors Ronga communities in southern Mozambique face, and as such, serves as a proxy measure for climate vulnerability at the local level. Oral histories and targeted interviews with participating elders, local chiefs, and community members …

Management Of Biodiversity: Creating Conceptual Space For Indigenous Conservation, Nicholas Herriman

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Indigenous people have, in recent decades, become increasingly involved in environmental conservation. Notwithstanding, some social science research has critiqued as problematic or untenable ideas (notably “Indigeneity” and “conservation”) that putatively underpin Indigenous conservation. But does the critique accurately characterize actual Indigenous conservation projects? And can we create conceptual space for Indigenous conservation? Based on experience participating in and observing Indigenous conservation projects, it appears that, partly by emphasizing human management of biodiversity, the projects avoided pitfalls identified by the critique. Future social science analysis might remain relevant by addressing the idea of management of biodiversity.

Book Review: La Muerte Del Verdugo: Reflexiones Interdisciplinarias Sobre El Cadáver De Los Criminales De Masa, Vincent Druliolle

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Review of La Muerte del Verdugo. Reflexiones Interdisciplinarias Sobre el Cadáver de los Criminales de Masa, ed. Séviane Garibian (Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila editores, 2016)

Responding To Purdeková, Simon Turner

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

After Nature: A Politics For The Anthropocene, Ann Vitous

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Personal History Ethnography In Environmental Anthropology: A Methodological Case Study, Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

The study of the relationship between humans and the environment and the ways in which humans use, abuse, or protect the environment is in part a study of motivation. Understanding the basis for motivation requires not just understanding individual or community sentiment towards the environment but researching the cultural norms, values and beliefs that underlie and foster cultural perspectives in the first place. But how do we begin to determine where, when and how those cultural norms, values, beliefs get developed, taught and inculcated?

The following paper presents the collection of life hisories as one methodological approach to accessing the …

Home Garden Diversity Of The Tahuayo Region, Peru, Daniel Bauer, Duncan Taylor, Nelly Pinedo Alvarado

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

We examined cultural and environmental factors affecting species diversity of home gardens in Amazonian Northeast Peru based on 33 surveys conducted in July/August, 2014, in three communities varying in remoteness, demography, ecological zone, and ethnicity. The results support the idea that community variation in home gardens is not influenced by a single factor such as remoteness, but instead is the result of multiple cultural and environmental factors. Similar to other studies of Amazonian home gardens, fruits and medicinal plants make up the bulk of home garden diversity; however, we did not find an association between a tourism and reduced garden …

Extraction: Impacts, Engagements, And Alternative Futures, Richard C. Bargielski

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

No abstract provided.