Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission

Published by Berghahn Books 2010

Remembering Violence

Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission

Edited by: Nicolas Argenti and Katharina Schramm

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781845459703

Overview
Contents

About this book

Psychologists have done a great deal of research on the effects of trauma on the individual, revealing the paradox that violent experiences are often secreted away beyond easy accessibility, becoming impossible to verbalize explicitly. However, comparatively little research has been done on the transgenerational effects of trauma and the means by which experiences are transmitted from person to person across time to become intrinsic parts of the social fabric. With eight contributions covering Africa, Central and South America, China, Europe, and the Middle East, this volume sheds new light on the role of memory in constructing popular histories – or historiographies – of violence in the absence of, or in contradistinction to, authoritative written histories. It brings new ethnographic data to light and presents a truly cross-cultural range of case studies that will greatly enhance the discussion of memory and violence across disciplines.

Author / Editor information

Nicolas Argenti is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at Brunel University. He has conducted research in North West Cameroon and Southern Sri Lanka on youth, political violence, and embodied memory. His monograph, The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence and Belated Histories in the Cameroon Grassfields, was published in 2007.

Katharina Schramm is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg. She has previously worked on the commemoration of the slave trade and cultural politics in Ghana. Her published works include African Homecoming: Panafricanism and the Politics of Heritage (2010) and Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re/creating Categories of Difference and Belonging (2012).

Nicolas Argenti is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at Brunel University. He has conducted research in North West Cameroon and Southern Sri Lanka on youth, political violence, and embodied memory. His monograph, The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence and Belated Histories in the Cameroon Grassfields, was published in 2007.

Reviews

“This collection of consistently interesting articles contributes to the very boom in studies of memory towards which the editors ambiguously claim some skepticism.” · JRAI

“[This volume] is an important anthropological contribution to this expanding field [of memories of past violence]...The ethnographic diversity of the chapters allows for cross-cultural comparison and, as the editors themselves underscore, for different methodological and analytical approaches.” · Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale

“This collection of essays marks out fertile ground for anthropological investigations of memories of violence and trauma…the fine-grained analyses [ the wide ranging case studies contain] give the lie to any simplistic, ethnocentric and yet unversalising, explanations…it throws a stunning critical spotlight upon many contemporary ‘Western’ therapeutic approaches that insist upon the ‘talking cure’…It makes a valuable contribution to the anthropology of time, memory and violence and is suitable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses.” · Anthroplogical Notebooks

"This is a rich and stimulating collection...Taken together [these chapters] provide an excellent antidote to simplistic medical or psychological approaches to the long-term effects of violence on victims and their families." · Paul Antze, York University, Toronto

"[A] timely and important collection that brings together a number of current literatures in anthropology and memory studies...The volume enriches and complicates the study of memory, while making at the same time a strong case for the distinctiveness of anthropology’s potential to contribute to such an enterprise." · Stuart McLean, University of Minnesota

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission Nicolas Argenti and Katharina Schramm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Bodies of Memory
Chapter 2 Rape and Remembrance in Guadeloupe Janine Klungel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Chapter 3 Uncanny Memories, Violence and Indigenous Medicine in Southern Chile Dorthe Brogaard Kristensen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
Performance
Chapter 4 Memories of Initiation Violence: Remembered Pain and Religious Transmission among the Bulongic (Guinea, Conakry) David Berliner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Chapter 5 Nationalising Personal Trauma, Personalising National Redemption: Performing Testimony at Auschwitz–Birkenau Jackie Feldman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Landscapes, Memoryscapes and the Materiality of Objects
Chapter 6 Memories of Slavery: Narrating History in Ritual Adelheid Pichler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Chapter 7 In a Ruined Country: Place and the Memory of War Destruction in Argonne (France) Paola Filippucci Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Generations: Chasms and Bridges
Chapter 8 Silent Legacies of Trauma: A Comparative Study of Cambodian Canadian and Israeli Holocaust Trauma Descendant Memory Work Carol A. Kidron Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Chapter 9 The Transmission of Traumatic Loss: A Case Study in Taiwan Stephan Feuchtwang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Chapter 10 Afterword: Violence and the Generation of Memory Rosalind Shaw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 280
Keywords: Peace and Conflict Studies; Anthropology (General); History (General)

eBook

Published: December 1, 2009
ISBN: 9781845459703