Hidden Genocides: Power, Knowledge, Memory

Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights

by Alexander Laban Hinton (Contributor), Thomas La Pointe (Editor), Douglas Irvin-Erickson (Editor)

Why are some genocides prominently remembered while others are ignored, hidden, or denied? Consider the Turkish campaign denying the Armenian genocide, followed by the Armenian movement to recognize the violence. Similar movements are building to acknowledge other genocides that have long remained out of sight in the media, such as those against the Circassians, Greeks, Assyrians, the indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australia, and the violence that was the precursor to and the aftermath of the Holocaust.
The contributors to this collection look at these cases and others from a variety of perspectives. These essays cover the extent to which our biases, our ways of knowing, our patterns of definition, our assumptions about truth, and our processes of remembering and forgetting as well as the characteristics of generational transmission, the structures of power and state ideology, and diaspora have played a role in hiding some events and not others. Noteworthy among the collection’s coverage is whether the trade in African slaves was a form of genocide and a discussion not only of Hutus brutalizing Tutsi victims in Rwanda, but of the execution of moderate Hutus as well.
Hidden Genocides is a significant contribution in terms of both descriptive narratives and interpretations to the emerging subfield of critical genocide studies.
Contributors: Daniel Feierstein, Donna-Lee Frieze, Krista Hegburg, Alexander Laban Hinton, Adam Jones, A. Dirk Moses, Chris M. Nunpa, Walter Richmond, Hannibal Travis, and Elisa von Joeden-Forgey

Genres: World History, Anthropology

231 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Alexander Hinton serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and Professor in the Anthropology and Global Affairs Departments at Rutgers University, Newark.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering this is a book titled Hidden Genocides, there (ironically) are a few instances of genocide that escape discussion in this book. Mainly that of Japan during WW2 (although there are two brief, one sentence, mentions of it), and that of colonial rule of Belgium in the Congo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (which is not mentioned at all). I hope to see perhaps a second volume of articles in a book similar to this one in which those genocides are given light.
A small criticism I have, is that on the article discussing the genocide of Native Americans, the author actually perpetuates one of the rhetorical issues regarding a hidden genocide that other authors in this very book are arguing should be avoided. The author compares the number of indigenous peoples that died to the Jews in the holocaust, however, in only considering the 6 million Jewish dead, he ignores the 6 million others (Roma, Poles, POWs, Gays, etc.) that were murdered during the genocidal campaign of the Nazis, and thereby perpetuates the very line of thinking and subtle "hiding" that this book is intended to combat (ie, shed light on "hidden genocides", in this case the murder of millions of others which often goes unmentioned in discussions of the holocaust).
For further discussion, another potential genocide could be discussed in a further volume regarding the Great Leap Forward, in which tens of millions of Chinese people died. This could be discussed in a similar book in the future to tease out the nuances of whether it did constitute genocide, and if it did, would it be a division between rural/urban people that was the main factor in deeming it genocide.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains a good collection of articles on a range of the lesser known genocides, including those that have been hidden.