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The Ethnography of Political Violence
Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror
"There is real personal danger for anthropologists who dare to speak and write against terror; by doing so, they potentially and sometimes actually bring the terror down on themselves." --Jeffrey A. Sluka, from the Introduction
Death Squad is the first work to focus specifically on the anthropology of state terror. It brings together an international group of anthropologists who have done extensive research in areas marked by extreme forms of state violence and who have studied state terror from the perspective of victims and survivors.
The book presents eight case studies from seven countries--Spain, India (Punjab and Kashmir), Argentina, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, and the Philippines--to demonstrate the cultural complexities and ambiguities of terror when viewed at the local level and from the participants' point of view. Contributors deal with such topics as the role of Loyalist death squads in the culture of terror in Northern Ireland, the three-tier mechanism of state terror in Indonesia, the complex role of religion in violence by both the state and insurgents in Punjab and Kashmir, and the ways in which disappearances are used to destabilize and demoralize opponents of the state in Argentina, Guatemala, and India.
Death Squad is the first work to focus specifically on the anthropology of state terror. It brings together an international group of anthropologists who have done extensive research in areas marked by extreme forms of state violence and who have studied state terror from the perspective of victims and survivors.
The book presents eight case studies from seven countries--Spain, India (Punjab and Kashmir), Argentina, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, and the Philippines--to demonstrate the cultural complexities and ambiguities of terror when viewed at the local level and from the participants' point of view. Contributors deal with such topics as the role of Loyalist death squads in the culture of terror in Northern Ireland, the three-tier mechanism of state terror in Indonesia, the complex role of religion in violence by both the state and insurgents in Punjab and Kashmir, and the ways in which disappearances are used to destabilize and demoralize opponents of the state in Argentina, Guatemala, and India.
264 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 6, 2019
In the introductory essay to "Death Squad" Jeffrey A. Sluka makes the argument that in the face of increasing employment of what he calls "state terror" by countries, anthropologists should abandon their traditional efforts to maintain objectivity (however illusory that goal) and, when encountering this kind of violence, document and even denounce it. "State terror" is essentially the use of violent clandestine groups to terrorize (there's really no adequate synonym) populations where the opposition may find support. In the cases where the government is of a different ethnic group or race, it can even move toward genocide or ethnic cleansing. Sluka's argument is perhaps best summed up by a quote from Michael Taussig, who wrote that anthropologists ought to "write back against terror."
Whether this volume achieves that goal or how effective achieving it would be remains unclear. But the essays are illuminating. Perhaps the most intriguing (although not entirely convincing) is Antonius C. G. M. Robbins' exploration of how the Argentine dirty war was linked to the country's nineteenth century habit of exhuming and repatriating military and political leaders, not to mention the way poor Eva Peron's corpse was preserved and sent around the world. The most terrifying is George J. Aditjondro's essay on the Indonesian systematic terror against East Timor (which was not even part of Indonesia's original boundaries). Noam Chomsky suggested that, as a percentage of the population, East Timor suffered the greatest loss of life of any group since the Holocaust. At least, since publication, the world exerted sufficient pressure that East Timor became the independent nation of Timor L'Este. Here and elsewhere, the essays make note of violence against women as a weapon and as colonialism.
Guatemala makes an all-too-brief appearance; after all, that's where the term death squad originated. Spain and the U.K. come off poorly, as the former's newly-minted democracy was exposed as running a terror campaign against Basque separatists and the latter sponsored Loyalist death squads in Northern Island whose murders, Sluka argues in an essay, far outnumbered those of the IRA. Philippine campaigns against southern Muslims are described in another. India appears twice, principally for terror against Sikhs, but also against Muslims. The Pakistani desire for Kashmir seems understandable in the light of the blackboard that, at least at the time Cynthia Keppley Mahmoud was writing, noted the number of Muslim bodies recovered after floating down the Jhellum River. At the time Mahmoud visited, the number was 476.
Each of these nations has (or had, in the case of Indonesia) a well-developed rhetoric of why such violence is necessary. In the case I know best, it is clear that the guerrillas were supported to some degree by some indigenous groups (although it is always difficult to figure out how many "enlistments" were coerced, how much food and shelter provided at gunpoint). But accounts of the time, including from the Guatemalan anthropologist Victor Montejo, also speak of communities buffeted between attacks by the guerrillas followed by attacks by the army. In fact, some of the visits by "guerrillas" seem to have been from army personnel in disguise.
Counter-insurgency is always an ugly business. That ugliness is magnified when the government's intelligence units decided that anything is excused in the cause of the preservation of the state--Marxism, territorial integrity (Indonesia, Russia), "democracy" (Spain, India, the U.K.--and let's not forget how much of this came out of the U.S. in Vietnam, which I cannot mention without honoring John McCain's crusade against torture and recalling that atrocities were inflicted by both sides), anti-terrorism itself and, of course the absolute necessity of preserving the state itself (Bashar al-Assad, anyone?).
And there seems to be no end to that ugliness.
Whether this volume achieves that goal or how effective achieving it would be remains unclear. But the essays are illuminating. Perhaps the most intriguing (although not entirely convincing) is Antonius C. G. M. Robbins' exploration of how the Argentine dirty war was linked to the country's nineteenth century habit of exhuming and repatriating military and political leaders, not to mention the way poor Eva Peron's corpse was preserved and sent around the world. The most terrifying is George J. Aditjondro's essay on the Indonesian systematic terror against East Timor (which was not even part of Indonesia's original boundaries). Noam Chomsky suggested that, as a percentage of the population, East Timor suffered the greatest loss of life of any group since the Holocaust. At least, since publication, the world exerted sufficient pressure that East Timor became the independent nation of Timor L'Este. Here and elsewhere, the essays make note of violence against women as a weapon and as colonialism.
Guatemala makes an all-too-brief appearance; after all, that's where the term death squad originated. Spain and the U.K. come off poorly, as the former's newly-minted democracy was exposed as running a terror campaign against Basque separatists and the latter sponsored Loyalist death squads in Northern Island whose murders, Sluka argues in an essay, far outnumbered those of the IRA. Philippine campaigns against southern Muslims are described in another. India appears twice, principally for terror against Sikhs, but also against Muslims. The Pakistani desire for Kashmir seems understandable in the light of the blackboard that, at least at the time Cynthia Keppley Mahmoud was writing, noted the number of Muslim bodies recovered after floating down the Jhellum River. At the time Mahmoud visited, the number was 476.
Each of these nations has (or had, in the case of Indonesia) a well-developed rhetoric of why such violence is necessary. In the case I know best, it is clear that the guerrillas were supported to some degree by some indigenous groups (although it is always difficult to figure out how many "enlistments" were coerced, how much food and shelter provided at gunpoint). But accounts of the time, including from the Guatemalan anthropologist Victor Montejo, also speak of communities buffeted between attacks by the guerrillas followed by attacks by the army. In fact, some of the visits by "guerrillas" seem to have been from army personnel in disguise.
Counter-insurgency is always an ugly business. That ugliness is magnified when the government's intelligence units decided that anything is excused in the cause of the preservation of the state--Marxism, territorial integrity (Indonesia, Russia), "democracy" (Spain, India, the U.K.--and let's not forget how much of this came out of the U.S. in Vietnam, which I cannot mention without honoring John McCain's crusade against torture and recalling that atrocities were inflicted by both sides), anti-terrorism itself and, of course the absolute necessity of preserving the state itself (Bashar al-Assad, anyone?).
And there seems to be no end to that ugliness.
October 15, 2024
Awesome book! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Its a collection of academic essays, each focusing on different regimes of state terror across the globe. The anthropology behind state practices of humiliation, disappearances, and repatriation is fascinating. It analyses not only the likes of the mujahadeen, East Timor resistance movement, and Basque separatists, but also examines the counter-insurgency groups deployed to instil terror in not only the groups but the innocent civilians connected, however loosely, to the groups, and how control is maintained through these terror tactics.
If you wouldn't want to read the whole book, I particularly enjoyed Sluka's own essay on Loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland. It exposes the British government and its collusion in the murder of hundreds of innocent Catholics throughout the troubles, and reveals how the British government and media portrayed the IRA as the sole agitators of violence when that was blatantly not the case.
If you wouldn't want to read the whole book, I particularly enjoyed Sluka's own essay on Loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland. It exposes the British government and its collusion in the murder of hundreds of innocent Catholics throughout the troubles, and reveals how the British government and media portrayed the IRA as the sole agitators of violence when that was blatantly not the case.
August 1, 2020
This is an academic book, so it is written in such a way as to bore and exclude the average reader, so be warned. By academic, I mean they assume a certain level of knowledge is already possessed on the subject by the reader and that the reader is also willing to read above a twelfth grade level - which most people aren’t. So you’ve been warned twice.
While I found the individual chapters of the book to be interesting, the reader has to wade through forty some pages of an indulgent and idiotic introduction. Where the editor discusses the use of state-terror, but somehow never mentions its use in communist countries. Instead the author praises Noam Chomsky and places all of the blame on Western Civilization in general and the USA in specific.
The introduction then discusses the use of anthropologist as activist to achieve "social justice" and point out wrongs in the world, stating that the world of anthropology needs to be "decolonized" - without explaining what that means. Then it justifies screwing the results to affect social change which invalidates most of the work everyone has done in the next several chapters. In my view, skip the introduction and dive into the meat of the matter.
The rest of the book however focuses on the meat of the matter without the interference of the editor. Each chapter discusses a different use of state terror in the Basque territories of post-Franco Spain; the Punjab and Kashmir regions of India; Argentina; Guatemala; Northern Ireland; The East Timor region within Indonesia; and against the Muslim separatist movements in the Philippians.
The variety of tactics are fascinating. Some operate openly, others “disappear” dissenters in the middle of the night. Many use “unofficial” paramilitary groups to do their dirty work, so that the respective governments can maintain plausible deniability while destroying their political enemies. The firsthand accounts and background material is first rate here, as is the research documentation. These chapters are what makes the book worthwhile. The introduction and conclusion can easily be excised.
While I found the individual chapters of the book to be interesting, the reader has to wade through forty some pages of an indulgent and idiotic introduction. Where the editor discusses the use of state-terror, but somehow never mentions its use in communist countries. Instead the author praises Noam Chomsky and places all of the blame on Western Civilization in general and the USA in specific.
The introduction then discusses the use of anthropologist as activist to achieve "social justice" and point out wrongs in the world, stating that the world of anthropology needs to be "decolonized" - without explaining what that means. Then it justifies screwing the results to affect social change which invalidates most of the work everyone has done in the next several chapters. In my view, skip the introduction and dive into the meat of the matter.
The rest of the book however focuses on the meat of the matter without the interference of the editor. Each chapter discusses a different use of state terror in the Basque territories of post-Franco Spain; the Punjab and Kashmir regions of India; Argentina; Guatemala; Northern Ireland; The East Timor region within Indonesia; and against the Muslim separatist movements in the Philippians.
The variety of tactics are fascinating. Some operate openly, others “disappear” dissenters in the middle of the night. Many use “unofficial” paramilitary groups to do their dirty work, so that the respective governments can maintain plausible deniability while destroying their political enemies. The firsthand accounts and background material is first rate here, as is the research documentation. These chapters are what makes the book worthwhile. The introduction and conclusion can easily be excised.
November 23, 2020
Ein wirklich sehr interessantes Buch, das ein Thema behandelt, über das nicht viel gesprochen wird. Das Werk bietet acht Essays die Staatsgewalt aus sieben Ländern betrachten. Wünschenswert wäre es gewesen, wenn auch auf die Motive und Hintergründe der Täter mehr eingegangen wäre. Aber ansonsten: sehr gute Einführung in ein grausames Thema.
July 13, 2017
This book is a difficult read yet important.
July 7, 2012
So the low rating on this one is primarily because it has a really limited audience. It's a compilation of works done by anthropologists to chronicle incidences of state terror and violence from an ethnographer's point of view. Throughout the whole book you see each anthropologist struggle with reporting a "truth" about experiences and struggle to not "take sides" as is traditionally a faux pas in ethnographies. It is a book that only gives you the slightest hint into very complex state terror situations and requires a lot of subsequent reading to really get into the depth of each situation. It's also a fairly difficult book to read because each page is pressed with stressful horrific life experiences of people. I would say unless your an anthropologist or someone interested in state terror for professional purposes, this might not be the summer read you're looking for.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews