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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.
List of contents
1. Introduction; Part I: Definitions and Parameters; 2. The Genocidal Pressures on Indigenous Peoples: Capitalism’s Cultural and Environmental Violence; 3. Raphaël Lemkin: Genocide, Cultural Violence, and Community Destruction; 4. Linguistic Genocide; Part II: Epistemological Dimensions; 5. The Interconnected Histories of South African and American Sociology: Knowledge in the Service of Colonial Violence; 6. Jerusalem and Violence: The Transformation of Secular and Sacred Interpretations; 7. Monumental Destruction and Ontological Violence in the Islamic State; Part III: Spatial and Material Dimensions; 8. Community Destruction, Museum Collections and the Work of Resilience; 9. Tahrir, and The Many Faces of Violence in the Egyptian Revolution; 10. An Unraveling Landscape: Harput and Mezre during Turkey’s Transition from Empire to Republic
About the author
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.
Summary
This volume brings together leading sociologists and anthropologists to break new ground in the study of cultural violence. Across ten chapters, this book addresses gaps in our understanding of why cultural violence occurs, what it consists of, and how it relates to other forms of collective violence.
