anth 280 part 2

Seymour Hersh, "Torture at Abu Ghraib"

○ Abu Ghraib was a notorious prison in Iraq, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions turned into a US military prison § Most of the prisoners were civilians, picked up in random military sweeps and at highway checkpoints ○ Numerous instances of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" § Systematic and illegal abuse of detainees was perpetuated by Americans ○ Evidence in the form of photographs and videos

Rajiv Chandrasekharan, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, excerpt

"Little Americas" Occupants distance themselves from the native culture See people on the outside of western culture as dangerous, limited interactions with those native.

Catherine Lutz, Homefront

Major points: Blurring the boundaries between civilian and military Increasing Militarization; even against the believe that people can "check out" All are implicated in the process of militarization Video games, movies, media Cultural perception of violence What it means to be masculine Military base cities Creates tensions; some benefit, many suffer War production going to scientists instead of the mass population (disproportion of wealth) Land taken from groups to build forts Regulations of the military impact businesses that rely heavily on the military.

Carolyn Nordstrom, Shadows of War

Major points: Ethnography Enables an understanding of shadow networks that isn't covered by the mainstream media and overcomes the difficulties that come with reporting on extra-legal operations Shadow Networks are hard to see from a distance but have a large impact and are very important to countries Blurred boundaries between "good and bad" Bridging the legal and extra-legal Informal economies to stake approved systems Shadow Networks thrive in areas of war = chaos means less regulations and focus on extra-legal networks

Erin Finley, Fields of Combat, selections

Major points: Multiple Realities of PTSD Venn diagram of the three realities that veterans experience Family, VA system, and Military Each hold different experiences and sides to PTSD Book is at the overlap of these three realities Ethnography Different way to look at PTSD, the experiences of veterans, and how these all relate/differ. Cultural politics of PTSD Justification and politicized About the country's involvement in wars To criticise the VA system and politicians for their failures to the veterans Almost all opinions are funded = more politics

Liisa Malkki, "Purity and Exile"

Problem: seeing refugees as a generic type of people De-contex tualized from history Refugee becomes a figure for the essential human Displacement and sense of history Mishamo (isolated camp) Hutu here had a stronger sense of what being a Hutu was, more consciously aware Mytho-history: creating moral narratives of their past Hutus the heroes Historical consciousness for their group Being in exile held significance: it was symbolic Focused on the past and returning home (Burundi) Kigoma (integrated into Tutsi town) Less of a sense of history, less consciously Hutu Focused on the present and getting on with life in Tanzania.

Philip Gourevitch, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We will be Killed With Our Families"

Rwanda Genocide Story What forms of propaganda were used, mainly in newspapers Dehumanize the Tutsi and Elevation of the Hutus Political plans to blame Tutsi and RPF of violence incidents Instantaneous hostility to the Tutsi by the Hutus and attacks by Hutu extremists Government claimed attacks were "spontaneous" and "acts of self-protection," not planned.

Rochelle Davi et al., "Cultural Sensitivity in a Military Occupation"

Soldiers learning and being aware of the culture in the country they are occupying; trying to have productive interactions without violence by understanding the culture Learned the culture better on the field than from military teachings

Edward Linenthal, "The Boundaries of Memory: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum"

The permanent exhibition appears as a seamless narrative, presenting a history of the Holocaust through the hidden authority of those who shaped the exhibition Aimed to create an environment that supported the interpretive story Built in glass, steel, and stone to emphasize the story was a permanent one Constrictive spaces, intentionally dark and simple colors A feeling of no escape Personalized story Museum planners worried that the millions of individual deaths would be lost in a story of mass death and a fascination with the technique of destruction Accomplished this through a painful link with the faces of Holocaust victims Purpose The narrative seeks to arouse empathy for victims, inform visitors about wartime America's role as both bystander and liberator, and ask visitors to ponder the power of a murderous ideology that produced those capable of implementing official mass extermination

David Petraeus, "Learning Counterinsurgency"

Tips on how to have productive counterinsurgency