Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide / Edition 1

by Alexander Laban Hinton, Robert Jay Lifton

Overview

Of all the horrors human beings perpetrate, genocide stands near the top of the list. Its toll is staggering: well over 100 million dead worldwide. Why Did They Kill? is one of the first anthropological attempts to analyze the origins of genocide. In it, Alexander Hinton focuses on the devastation that took place in Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979 under the Khmer Rouge in order to explore why mass murder happens and what motivates perpetrators to kill. Basing his analysis on years of investigative work in Cambodia, Hinton finds parallels between the Khmer Rouge and the Nazi regimes. Policies in Cambodia resulted in the deaths of over 1.7 million of that country's 8 million inhabitants—almost a quarter of the population—who perished from starvation, overwork, illness, malnutrition, and execution. Hinton considers this violence in light of a number of dynamics, including the ways in which difference is manufactured, how identity and meaning are constructed, and how emotionally resonant forms of cultural knowledge are incorporated into genocidal ideologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520241794
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	12/06/2004
Series:	California Series in Public Anthropology , #11
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Alexander Laban Hinton is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, Newark. He is the editor of Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide (California, 2002), Genocide: An Anthropological Reader (2002), and Biocultural Approaches to the Emotions (1999).

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Timeline
List of Personages
Foreword by Robert Jay Lifton
Introduction: In the Shadow of Genocide

Part One • The Prison without Walls
Preamble
1. A Head for an Eye: Disproportionate Revenge
2. Power, Patronage, and Suspicion
3. In the Shade of Pol Pot’s Umbrella

Part Two • The Fire without Smoke
Preamble
4. The DK Social Order
5. Manufacturing Difference
6. The Dark Side of Face and Honor
Conclusion: Why People Kill

Note on Transliteration
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In this study of a once-peaceful Buddhist society that got so caught up with Marxism that it came to see virtue in violence and honor in auto-genocide, Hinton goes further than most accounts of the horrors of Pol Pot's regime in exploring the cultural factors that made Cambodians in the Khmer Rouge willing to kill so many other Cambodians. His sophisticated argument, based on subtle analysis of the Khmer language and extensive anthropological study, shows how Cambodian culture attached great importance to power, patronage, status, and honor; perceived humiliation legitimates anger and retribution, creating the potential for disproportionate revenge. Suddenly finding themselves part of a new elite, young Khmer Rouge recruits were encouraged to dwell on past affronts to their dignity and that of their families and to show no mercy in seeking retribution against "class enemies" and others perceived as threats. The extraordinary power in Hinton's analysis stems from his readiness to confront hard questions and his skill in elucidating the elements in Cambodian culture that made genocide possible. Although he is careful to keep his analysis focused on the Cambodian case, his insights also help explain genocides in general.

Foreign Affairs