On the question of historical injuries: Transitional justice, anthropology and the

vicissitudes of listening
Author(s): Alejandro Castillejo-Cuellar
Source: Anthropology Today, Vol. 29, No. 1 (February 2013), pp. 17-20
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23486438
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 On
Onthe question
the of historical
question injuries of
Transitional
Transitionaljustice, anthropologyjustice,
and the vicissitudesanthropolog
of listening

Alejandro
AlejandroCastillejo- I was recently
Castillejo
invited to participate in an 'exploratory
Cuellar
Cuellar workshop' at a prestigious academic institution in Canada.
The author is an Associate The occasion was prompted by the prospective publication
Professor at the University 0f a special edition on violence, transitional justice, social
of the Andes, Columbia. He ■ A ,, ji ± a ■ j. , ■ i • .
, , ,tl . repair and the everyday, by a reputed international journal,
is co-founder of the Africa r J v J '
and Latin America initiative edited by two committed and well-kno
(ALACI). the Critical issues. I am moved to write these vign
Studies Network on Political
Transitions, and Encounters:
to engage with the actual content of the papers presen
(which were indeed very broad in scope), but to ref
An International Journal for

the study of Culture and on the interaction that took place du

Society (Dubai). His email is two days of discussions. In a way, this
acastill@uniandes. edu. co.
reading of the production and circulation of knowle
about the field of transitional justice.
The ways in which societies have experienced differen
forms of violence has been at the forefront of a number
academic and political debates over the last few deca
(Bell 2008; Bevernage 2011). The idea of'transitional
tice' - and the complex network of legal and extrale
mechanisms in charge of 'dealing with' the causes
effects of human rights violations - is based on at least
central assumption. As societies 'move forward' (a 'm
ment' reflected in the application of constitutional reform
Fig.
Fig.1. 'Threshold', La
1. 'Threshold', La
Maison
Maison 'memory
d'Esclave,
d'Esclave, Dakar, Dakar, initiatives' [like truth commissions], repara
2007. programmes, development projects, etc.) violence is 'left
2007.

behind', in aseptic reclusion of 'the past'. Originally, the

notion of 'transition' implied a teleological movement
from 'authoritarian rule' towards a 'liberal democracy'
l Retrieved from inserted in today's global capitalism. In reality, however,
1. Retrieved from

http://michaelcumming.
http://michaelcumming. the 'transition paradigm' is now applied to many other his
ALEJANDRO CASTIL EJO
com/2011/03/mush-hole
com/2011/03/mush-hole- torical experiences that are not necessarily described as
brantford/. Neal Keating,
brantford/. Neal Keating, 'post-authoritarian'
anan anthropologist
anthropologist based at
(Carrothers 2002). and inequality - despite the promise of a new nation
based at r v ' j r r
thethe
State UniversityState
of New University of New Anthropologists
York,
York, curated the exhibition. curated the exhibition.in at least two br
He also made a statement:
'In the four decades since
hand, we have studied how violence i
then he [the artist] has been ized, examined the groups and the ide
hospitaiized
hospitalized numerous times numerous times insurgents, 'the
forfor
a variety of psychiatric
a variety of psychiatric effects of violen
disorders. He has repeatedly
disorders. He has repeatedly 1997; Robben & S
attempted
attempted suicide, been suicide, been ' ' ' J
arrested
arrested for assault, wrecked for assault, wrecked et al
his his marriages,
marriages, and developed and developed have
severe substance abuse and
in concrete transitional and
other health problems. A
common pattern is evident viduals and broader commun
in
in the the
thick file of medical thick file of medical torical
and and
police records for Miller:
police records for Miller: creat
when the doctors and nurses

asked
asked him why he did it, h1imdwChyrLadfdr'itirSLS 20
he
he invariably invariably
answered answered five is als
that it was because of what
that it was because of what assemb
happened to him in the Mush
happened
Hole.'
to him in the Mush tjce
H°2e
2. The verb 'to The verb'to explore glob
domesticate'has
domesticate' has a double a double ings of s
Latin etymology. Not only an(j socially contested. Canadian as well as international institutions (including
Latin etymology. Not only
does it conjure up the
does it conjure up the Along these lines, in what follows, I am interested in the the journal's editorial board from Canada, the US an
ideaidea
of 'bringing under of bringing under ° ' ' J '
control'
control' (or 'converting (or 'converting vicissitudes
animals
animals to domestic use') to domestic use') institutio
by
by overpowering
overpoweringthem,them,
but
but
also means 'to accustom
broader epistemologies throu
to home life', 'to adapt to transitional justice is produced
an The
an environment'. environment'.
term The term cerned w
evokes the possibility of
evokes the possibility of that seem
rendering familiar, of bringing
home^nrn^hT
home into the private family private family^ (geog
sphere
sphere that which is perceived that which is perceived tempo
as Power,
as otherness. otherness.
control, Power, control,
questi
and homeliness inhabit
future'. Here, I distinguish tw
this term (house, domus,
[Latin], doma [Greek]). To of violence embodied by surv
domesticate
domesticate is to render is to render assumptio
familiar.
familiar. prospect of historical

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013 17

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 speech conventions used throughout their oral interven- 2004; Madlingozi 2010; Taiaiake 2009: 101; Rappaport &
tions) was not only part of the opening panel but also of Field 2011). This colleague brought such tension to the
the first day of deliberations. fore, mindful of the fact that such reification is structural
Likewise, during the inaugural panel, testimony from a rather than a matter of bad faith or personal perspective, as
church-run residential school survivor (a policy of mass few of the guests had strong, long-term, even collabora
re-education of Indian children responsible for the fracture five ties with communities and organizations,
of families and communities over many decades between As I have argued elsewhere, seemingly naive standard
1883 and the 1990s) was shared. This panel, which took interviewing practices can be perceived by survivor organ
place the night before the start of actual group discussions, izations (like slave bodies, land grabs, strategic minerals
was meant, as the organizers stated, to highlight the ways and other commodities) as an 'expropriation' (even for
'local indigenous communities use their own culturally the purpose of knowledge and understanding) of verbal
specific ceremonies, protocols, storytelling, and art to ized experiences of 'violence' and 'trauma' that feed the
address the violent history and legacy of Canada's Indian international circuit of academic theorizing and personal
residential school system'. It also included representatives prestige: book royalties, better academic placements, con
from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission sultancy appointments by any of the humanitarian multi
who spoke of Canada's ongoing process. nationals, and the endless circuit of conference and expert
In a way, the interventions of the elders embodied the participation, are some of the ways this political economy
very topics of the workshop, where testimony and cere- of knowledge crystallizes. Experiences of trauma are also
mony were uncannily blended. Yet, the fact that the singing commodities (Castillejo 2005).
(or rather, the praying) was performed in a non-European However, what I would like to emphasize is the fact
language (a North American indigenous language in fact) that the residential school system was part of the so
made its message utterly unintelligible and the ritual con- called 'civilizing' and Christianizing project (or mission,
ventions impossible to understand for the great majority in its devotional-teleological sense), much like the Lost
of guests. 1 find this experience of unintelligibility (a kind Generation in Australia or the forced evangelization that
of theoretical blind spot) a rather telling element that, even has taken place ever since the conquest of America. As we
if seemingly tangential, showed some of the main issues know, the whole idea behind this project was the assimi
and contradictions that subsequently emerged over the lation of 'aboriginal people' (an anthropophagic strategy,
next two days. This intelligibility is due to the fact that as Levi-Strauss would put it) into the values imposed by
in trying to grasp the multiple dimensions of violence 'Euro-American' colonialism: it amounted to cultural
through different mechanisms, collective languages insti- genocide (added to the literal one) by means of re-educa
tuted by state-sponsored laws of national reconciliation tion, communal fragmentation, the loss of language, and
Baer,
Baer, U.
u. 2005. 2005.
Spectral Spectral
(and of course such was the theoretical framework of the the stealing of land and wealth (Bauman 1993: 163). The
evidence: The photography
evidence: The photography workshop) in countries where inequality and historical dividing line between education, pain, and violence was
of
of trauma.
trauma. Cambridge: Cambridge: . , • , , , ,
MIT Press. dispossession are deeply entrenched, fail to render intel- certainly blurred.
MIT Press.

Barbosa,
Barbosa, R. 2011.
R. 2011. Los ligible the structural, as well as the personal, dimensions During the workshop, much of the violence inherent
Los
Diez Mandamientos de
Diez Mandamientos de 0f violence that are rooted in a longer historicity that fall in the system was embodied by the testimonies of the
los Pueblos Indígenas.
Raz6nCp'iblic^'httpV/
Razón Pública, http:// beYond the temporal confines established by these dis- residential school survivor regarding his own life, the
razonpublica.com/index. courses (Corntassel & Holder 2008). abuses
razonpublica.com/index. he endured, and the ways that the system itself was
php/econom-y-sociedad- part of the structures of inequality that have defined the
php/econom-y-sociedad
temas-29/2608-los-diez
temas-29/2608-ios-diez- Ways of speaking lives
mandamientos-de-los
mandamientos-de-los- .
of
.
many First Nations. From
pueblos-indigenas.html.
pueblos-indigenas.html. (...) [TJh
Bauman, Z. 1993.
Bauman, Z. 1993. long period an
Postmodern ethics.
Postmodern ethics.
Oxford: Blackwell.
of recent v
Oxford: Blackwell. been offered
the
Bell, C. 2008. Transitional Indian in t
Bell, C. 2008. Transitional (The T
justice, interdisciplinari
justice, interdisciplinarity
quoted in Barbosa 2011)
and the
and thestate
stateofof the
the
tions of the eld
'field' or 'non-field'.
At the end of the first da
International
International Journal of Journal of , , ....... , 0 , , , ,
Transitional
Transitional Justice 3( 1 ), Justice 3(1), father had been confi
26 26 September,
September, 5-27. 5-27. as a young boy and had
Bevernage, B. 2011. History,
Bevemage, B. 2011. History, teachers, seriously
memory and state-sponsor
"violence
violence. London: London-^"'"0' place on that day, highl
Routiedge. her life and her experience of in
Routledge.
Carrothers,
Carrothers,T. 2002. The end T. 2002. The end
'academics' in general. This comment,
ofof
the transition
the paradigm. transition paradigm.
Journal
Journalof Democracy
strongly
of Democracy
echoed debates among survivo
13(1):
13(1):
5-21. 5-21. in different parts of the 'global South'
Castiiiejo-Cueiiar,
Castillejo-Cuellar, A. 2007. A. 2007. political economy of
Knowledge, experience,
Knowledge, experience, and immediate materiali
and South Africa's
an ou rica s 'third world' transitions. In any
scenarios
scenarios of forgiveness. of forgiveness. . .
Radical
Radical History Review History Review addressed more th
97: 1-32.
97:1-32. communities were no exception
— 2005. Unravelling silence:
2005. Unravelling silence. ness' situation, a
Violence,
Violence, memory and the memory and the . .
limits
limits of anthropology's of anthropology's (Nadasd
craft. Dialectical
craft .Dialectical even if unwitt
Anthropology 29: 159-180.
Anthropology 29\ 159-180. schola
Corntassel, J. & C. Holder
2008
2008. Who's sorry now? who's sorry'now? [read tes
Government
Government apologies, apologies, reification
truth commissions,
truth commissions, 'trauma ex
and indigenous self
and indigenous self- There is al
determination
determination in Australia, in Australia, . ,
Canada,
Canada, Guatemala, and Guatemala, and politics to the appl
Peru.
Peru. Human Rights Human Rights in the context of war
Review 9: 465-469.
Review 9:465-469. be historically and soci

18 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013

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 . * f\

Fig.
Fig. 2. 2.
'Noname'. implemented. And all this leads to a question: might it be Mush Hole (Brantford, Ontario) - hence
'No name
Fig.
Fig. 3. 'Apartheid
3.'Apartheid Museum,Museum,
possible to speak of harm as an accumulative phenomenon name Mush Hole remembered: R. Gary
South
South Africa.'
Africa. '
(even over centuries), a kind of existential palimpsest in Arts Block, March-April, 2011). This artist h
which layers of collective suffering entwine (Taiaiake to explore his own childhood memories by brin
2009)? Would this kind of historical injury, of 'structural to canvas, but by his own admission, this pr
silence', be part of a larger transitional justice agenda a 'nightmare' after years of personal struggle,
(Feldman 2004)? where even the very relation between arts and therapy can
be put into question. In his own words:
Images as testimonies [T]his project evolved from decades of need to express my
During the workshop, the question of testimony, trauma, personal outrage at the world, combined with a moment of
and visual arts also came to the fore. As is well known, political timeliness. 1 thought it would be groundbreaking an
the general argument underlying this topic is that art (in exciting to tackle — it turned into four years of nightmares and
any of its forms, but particularly visual art) may be a tool breakdowns, until I realized I had a more fragile grip on
, ■ , „ .. i, - , c i i center than I knew. This was as close as I could come with
(sometimes personal, sometimes collective) for dealing , . . ,
... . . . , , sharing my story, (my italics)
with the afterlife of violence: it is conceived as a thera
peutic, cathartic tool and as a way of repairing or healing And he continues:
an unravelled social fabric. Exhibitions by peasant women Perhaps other Residential School Survivors will take up the
depicting images of terror in Latin America and Africa as gauntlet and excise their demons in their own way. Mine have
well as former combatants staging and singing about the only been exposed - not destroyed. I know now that I cannot
ravages of war, have also been part of other transitional carry on living on the surface of my self. My artwork previous
scenarios. Among the artists discussed during one partic- t0 the conception of this project has always been an attempt
, . ,■ ., r- l-uv u to find a raison d'etre and self-respect. I am incomplete and 1
ular presentation, there was mention of an exhibition by ,, t , , , ,. p
™ ^ need help to heal and achieve peace with my past. You cannot
a well-known, professional Mohawk artist, R. G. Miller- cauterjze an infected wQund (R Q lVllller_LahlaakSi 2008),
Lahiaaks (Mohawk, b. 1950, Six Nations), who had been
sent to one of the infamous residential schools when he This information was introduced during the presen
was only two years old: the Mohawk Institute, nicknamed tation, and photographs of some of the paintings were

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013 19

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Das,
Das,v. et al.
V. (eds).
et 2001.
al.shown. Reference
(eds). was also made to the general themes Jean Amery, nee Hans Meier come to mind), has to give
2001.
Remaking a world:
Remaking a world-. 0f artwork: images of Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of way to a forgiving one, for the sake of national unity and
Violence, social suffering,
a'ndTemvery Bertf)ey-? t"le Mohawks
and recovery. (St Paul's) from the perspective of a child, reconciliation.
Berkeley:
University
University of California
of images of children and skulls, paintings of Indian boys Truth commissions established by laws of national
California
Press. hugging each other affectionately: a light in the midst of unity, by establishing the kind of violence to be testi
Press.

Feldman, A. 2004. Memory

Feldman, A. 2004. Memory emptiness. Spaces of violence drawn on these canvases fied, often frame the ways that testimonies are rendered
theaters,
theaters, virtual witnessing, virtual witnessing, , . . „ . . . . , .r,, , ,
and
and the trauma-aesthetic. were
the trauma-aesthetic. also reminiscent ot other
Biography
Biography 27( 1 ): 163-202. 27(1): 163-202. depicted holocaust image
Hinton, A. 2011. Transitional
Hinton, A. 2011. Transitional Then, what had at the beginn
justice: Global
justice.
mechanisms and local
mechanisms
Global evenand
co]ourf\j]
local
vjew
° °
0f
r
a1child's memor
realities
realities after genocide after genocide
andmass
and mass violence. New violence. New
Jersey: Rutgers University
Press.
Jersey: Rutgers Universi
—
— 2002. Annihilating 20CP Annihilating a
difference:
difference: The The their
anthropology
anthropology of genocide. of genocid
Berkeley: University of
Berke'ey:
California Press.
University of
Jaimes.A.
Jaimes, A. 1992. The state of 1992 The stat
nativenative
America: Genocide, America: Genocid
colonization and
colonization and ness. T
resistance. Boston: South
End
End Press. Press B°St°n' S°U
Madlingozi,
Madlingozi, T. 2010. On T. 2010. O
transitional
transitional justice justice wit
entrepreneurs and the room. nation of how the process of historical reconfiguration
entrepreneurs and the
production of victims.
VJourna]TfHunw™Rights
Journal of Human Rights * took this work, this imagery, to be literally a testimony; produces and reinforces a series of absenc
Practice 2:208-228. n0L as k is usually framed, testimonial art. I place the paradoxically, at the very moment of thei
Practice 2: 208-228.

Nadasdy,
Nadasdy, P. 2003. HuntersHunters accent on witnessing, not on art. In this context, testimony in language, in the broadest sense. D
p. 2003.
and bureaucrats:
and knowledge,
Power, bureaucrats: and ^ sjience; an articulation of experience. There, I saw the semantic density of what is narrated is
Aboriginal-State
Aboriginal-State relations relations a human being struggling with forms, lines, and colours discursive pressures and
the theoretical
inthethe
in Southwest
Southwest Yukon.Yukon. to give some kind of shape to the past; shape that at cer- define, to a certain extent, the nature
Toronto: University of
Toronto: University of tain times became blurred, elusive, even unintelligible, as what it is intended to convey. It is import
Vancouver Press.
Nord^ronTc
Nordstrom, C 1997. P>97
A 4 ^ seParati°n between art and life can be in a world of the pressures and multiple uses by which th
different
different kind
kind of of war
story. extremities. Retrospectively, I am still reflecting on the other, as Emanuel Levinas would argue - a
war story.
Philadelphia:
Philadelphia: Penn
Press. kinds of mediations (discursive as well as existential) that imposed on his or her body - is trapped
Penn Press.
— & J. Martin 1992. The
— & J. Martin 1992. The would be necessary in order to show, to listen, to read, to perhaps paradoxical form of epistemic vio
paths to domination,
Predstanc°anTte°ror
resistance view, to smell, or to touch these testimonies (like many process domestication, in its etymologica
and terror.
Berkeley:
Berkeley: University
University of others), and the ethical engagements required from audi- In Miller's work, violence erupts again i
of
California Press.
California Press. ences (of scholars, of children, of citizens) to grasp, even confronts given conceptions of how surv
Rappaport, J. & L.
Rappaport, j.&l. jf jn a ]jmited way, the paradox of expressing what lies their victimhood and confront their peers
Field
Field 2011. Special 2011. Special iijj ,, • , .......
issue- Collaborative perhaps beyond words. has been seen m other transitional scenarios, the weight
issue: Collaborative

anthropologies
anthropologies in
in Latin Latin The presentation sparked some critical comments and of 'reconciliation' lies on the shoulders of (forg
America. Collaborative
America. Collaborative questions regarding the fate of the artist and his project, victims or of those whose victimizations have been
Anthropologies 4.
Anthropologies A part exchange centred around the difficulties of for technical reasons, outside the purview of rep
Robben,
Robben, A. & M. Suárez
A. & M. Suarez- ....
Orozco
Orozco (eds). 2000. (eds). 2000. organizing the exhibition and the fact that oth
Cultures
Cultures under siege.under siege. due to the graphic nature of the paintings, wer
Cambridge:
Cambridge:Cambridge Cambridge j0 present this particular work. It was argued
University Press.
Ross"f
Ross, 2003
F. 2003. Bearing ^Bearing Acuities were due to technicalities. However,
witness:
witness: Women and the Women and the text °f the workshop, the complexity of the ar
Truth and Reconciliation
Truth and Reconciliation as well as the experiences of trauma that lay
Commission in South
Commission m South f0]d 0f official history, were scattered in perf
Africa.
Africa. London: Pluto London: Pluto , . .. . .. .
Press ments, and at one point banished into obvious, literal often establish,
Press.

sluka,J.J.
Sluka, 2000.
2000. Death
Death squads.squads. silence. Certainly, for an audience, there may be, as Baer
Philadelphia:
Philadelphia: University of
University of has argued, an abyss between experience and speech — if
Pennsylvania Press.
Pennsylvania Press. tqese tWQ can rea|jy qe uitjmately detached. Yet, it seems One of the underlying arguments in this text is that
Taiaiake,
Taiaiake,A. 2009. Wasáse:
A. 2009. Wasase: . ,
indigenous
Indigenous pathways pathways to me that this reluctance (or this
ofof action
action andfreedom. and freedom. hend) is a rather meaningful fragm
Toronto: University of
Toronto:
Toronto Press.
University of opens a space, a fracture, for mo
TruthTnd°Recmiciliation
Truth and Reconciliation (Baer 2005)' c
Commission of Canada. If this regard, what was most p
Commission of Canada.

2012.
2012. They came forThey came for Hole remembered: R. Gary Miller a
children: Canada,
children:
Aboriginal children, cjan^a- an academic audience, was the very na
tnJrfsMenUa^schools
and residential schools. as an unsettling, even subversive int
Manitoba,
Manitoba, Canada. Canada. sent. Of course, in the context of a p
Tuhiwai-Smith, L.
Tuhiwai-Smith, L. tion, testimonies - whether in the for
2004. Decolonizing
2004. Decolonizing other kinds of systems of representa
methodologies:
methodologies: Research Research J
and
and Indigenous Peoples. indigenous Peoples.
London: Zed
London: Zed Books. Books. enu
Wilson, R. 2001. The politics
Wilson, R. 2001. The poli
of truth and reconciliation
7'7)uthAfrica0"C,lla'l0n
in South Africa.
Cambridge:
Cambridge: Cambridge Cambridge th
University
University Press. Press. 'unfo

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