Anthropology 517 Anthropology of Violence Fall 2007 Prof Daniel Goldstein F 12:35-3:35, RAB 305 Email: dgoldstein@anthropology.rutgers.

.edu Office phone: 2-9887 Office number: RAB 303 Office hours: M 3:45-4:45; F 3:30-4:00 Anthropology is the study of culture, supposedly, or society, perhaps, either of which refers to an ordered whole that the anthropologist renders accessible to a reader. Violence, on the other hand, is often regarded as inherently disordering, chaotic, out of control, and therefore not an easy subject for anthropology to handle. But what if we consider violence to be integral to culture, an unfortunate yet unavoidable reality that in fact produces its own kind of ordering effects? Does violence provide a core component of human society and history? This course is about the centrality of violence to modern and historical social life; rather than a disruption of a solid state norm, violence can be seen as the very fabric on which society is founded, not to mention a tool of political, economic, and symbolic domination, resistance, performance, and manipulation. This course will explore various theoretical approaches to understanding violence, and will examine a variety of ethnographic cases that put violence in local context. By the end of the course, if not thoroughly depressed, you should at least have acquired a sense of violences richness, complexity, and stabilizing as well as destabilizing force. Course Requirements and Grading 1. Weekly reading and active participation (25%). Students who attend without participating will not receive A grades for the course. 2. Weekly reaction memos (25%) 2 pages in length, double-spaced, with 12 point font (Times or Times New Roman) and one-inch margins. These should be posted to the course Sakai site by midnight every Thursday. Everyone in class should read each others memos prior to class, and come prepared to debate, critique, and query. 3. Discussion leadership (15%) each student will have at least one opportunity to lead the seminar, preparing questions and activities for that weeks class. 4. Term paper (35%) - 15-20 pages in length, same specifications as for the memos. Term papers are due Friday, December 14 at 4:00 PM. A one-page prospectus is due Friday, November 2, in class. Readings On several occasions during the semester, I have arranged for the authors of our readings to attend and participate in our seminar meetings. In addition to some e-reserve articles, the following books are required for the course: Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. States of Exception. Arendt, Hannah. 1994. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

Caldeira, Teresa P.R. 2006. City of Walls: Crime, Segregation and Citizenship in Sao Paolo. Goldstein, Daniel M. 2004. The Spectacular City: Violence and Performance in Urban Bolivia. Hinton, Alexander Laban. 2005. Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide. Lazarus-Black, Mindie. 2007. Everyday Harm: Domestic Violence, Court Rites, and Cultures of Reconciliation. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1993. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Course Schedule Sep 14 From whence violence? On the nature of evil in society Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem Feldman, Allen. The Event and its Shadow: Figure and Ground in Violence Sep 21 The social sacrifice and the body in pain Girard, Rene. Sacrifice, and The Sacrificial Crisis, from Violence and the Sacred, 1972 Patterson, Orlando. Feast of Blood, from Rituals of Blood, 1998 Scarry, Elaine. The Structure of Torture, from The Body in Pain, 1985 Taussig, Michael. Culture of Terror Space of Death: Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture, 1984 Sep 28 Exceptional states Agamben, States of Exception Benjamin, Walter. 1969. Theses on the Philosophy of History Das, Veena. 2004. The signature of the state: The paradox of illegibility Goldstein, Daniel M. 2007. Human Rights as Culprit, Human Rights as Victim: Rights and Security in the State of Exception. Taussig, Michael. 1989. Terror as Usual: Walter Benjamin's Theory of History as a State of Siege Oct 5 Genocide and mass violence Special guest: Alex Laban Hinton Hinton, Why Did They Kill? Oct 12 Structural violence and the everyday Scheper-Hughes, Death Without Weeping, chapters TBA Farmer, Paul. On suffering and structural violence: Social and economic rights in the global era, 2005

Oct 19 Gendered violence and the law Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2002. Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others. Alcalde, Christina. 2007. Why would you marry a Serrana? Womens experiences of identity-based violence (optional: view the commentaries on this article on line) Aretxaga, Begoa. 1995. Dirty Protest: Symbolic Over-determination and Gender in Northern Ireland Ethnic Violence Merry, Sally. 2001. Spatial governmentality and the new urban social order: Controlling gender violence through law Peteet, Julie. 1994. Violence and the construction of a gendered identity in the occupied territories Oct 26 Gendered violence and the law, continued Special guest: Mindie Lazarus-Black Lazarus-Black, Everyday Harm Nov 2 Violence as performance, communication and narrative Briggs, Charles. 2007. Mediating infanticide: Theorizing relations between narrative and violence Goldstein, Daniel M., and Fatimah Williams Castro. 2006. Creative Violence: How Marginal People Make News in Bolivia. Goldstein, The Spectacular City Nov 9 Urban crime and disorder Caldeira, City of Walls Nov 16 Ethnic violence Special guest: Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi Readings TBA Nov 21 (Wed) Memory, forgiveness, forgetting In the aftermath of violence Coxshall, Wendy. 2005. From the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commision to Ethnography: Narrative, Relatedness, and Silence Hirsch, Susan F. 2007. Writing Ethnography After Tragedy: Towards Therapeutic Transformations Robben, Antonious C. G. M. 2005. How Traumatized Societies Remember: The Aftermath of Argentina's Dirty War. Wilson, Richard A. 2000. Reconciliation and Revenge in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Nov 30 No class, AAA meetings in Washington, DC time to be made up at the end of next weeks session Dec 7 Student paper presentations; class will go late to accommodate all presenters