Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror

271 Pages·1999·16.57 MB·English

by  Jeffrey A. Sluka

Death Squad
The Ethnography of Political Violence
Cynthia Keppley Mahmood, Series Editor
A complete list of books in the series
is available from the publisher.
Death Squad
The Anthropology of State Terror
Edited by JeffreyA . Sluka
PENN
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 2000 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Published by-
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Death squad : the anthropology of state terror / edited by Jeffrey A.
Sluka.
p. cm. — (Ethnography of political violence)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3523-1 (cloth : alk. paper). -
ISBN 0-8122-1711-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Terrorism. 2. State-sponsored terrorism. 3. Death squads.
4. Human rights. 5. Political persecution. I. Sluka, Jeffrey A.
II. Series.
HV6431.D433 1999
303.6'25-dc21 99-34602
CIP
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Introduction: State Terror and Anthropology 1
Jeffrey A. Sluka
1. A Fictional Reality: Paramilitary Death Squads and the 46
Construction of State Terror in Spain
Begona Aretxaga
2. Trials by Fire: Dynamics of Terror in Punjab and Kashmir 70
Cynthia Keppley Mahmood
3. State Terror in the Netherworld: Disappearance and 91
Reburial in Argentina
Antonius C. G. M. Robben
4. The Homogenizing Effects of State-Sponsored Terrorism: 114
The Case of Guatemala
Frank M. AJJliUo
5. "For God and Ulster": The Culture of Terror and Loyalist 127
Death Squads in Northern Ireland
Jeffrey A. Sluka
6. Ninjas, Nanggalas, Monuments, and Mossad Manuals: An 158
Anthropology of Indonesian State Terror in East Timor
GeorgeJ. Adiljondro
7. Murdered or Martyred? Popular Evaluations of Violent 189
Death in the Muslim Separatist Movement in the Philippine;
Thomas M. McKenna
vi Contents
8. Parents and Their Children in Situations of Terror: 204
Disappearances and Special Police Activity in Punjab
Joyce Pettigrew
Conclusion: Death Squads and Wider Complicities: 226
Dilemmas for the Anthropology of Violence
Kay B. Warren
List of Contributors 249
Index 251
Illustrations
4.1 Demonstrators protest army-perpetrated massacre, 117
Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, 8 December 1990.
4.2 Demonstrators proclaim "We Promote Life" as the 122
antithesis of state terror, Guatemala City, 15 December 1990.
5.1 Where death squads roam: New Lodge Road, North 130
Belfast, 1995.
5.2 Anti-death squad mural, Beechmount, West Belfast. 132
5.3 Death squad mural, Shankill, West Belfast. 135
5.4 Death squad mural, Shankill, West Belfast. 137
5.5 Anti-death squad mural, Ballymurphy, West Belfast. 140
5.6 Anti-death squad mural, Beechmount, West Belfast. 143
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
This book is the first collection of ethnographic case studies focused
specifically on the anthropology of state terror. It is a positive response to
Linda Green's observation that "Overwhelming empirical evidence dem-
onstrates that state violence has been standard operating procedure in
numerous contemporary societies where anthropologists have conducted
fieldwork over the past three decades. Despite an alarming rise in the most
blatant forms of transgression, repression and state terrorism, the topic
has not captured the anthropological imagination" (1995:107). It also
reflects her suggestion, after Nancy Scheper-Hughes, that one way anthro-
pologists may overcome this failure of imagination is to construct eth-
nographies as "sites of resistance," "acts of solidarity," and a way to "write
against terror" (Green 1995:109). The goals of the book are to bring
together contemporary ethnographic studies of state terror and its impact
on local-level communities, particularly the occurrence of extrajudicial
state killings of political opponents and civilians through disappearances
and death squad activities, and to both present and reflect upon the "state
of the art" of contemporary anthropological considerations of state ter-
ror, including theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, field-
work experiences, and ethical dilemmas.
The book brings together an international panel of anthropologists
with extensive research experience in areas marked by extreme forms of
state repression and terror, who have all studied state terror from the
local-level perspective of victims and survivors living in "targeted" com-
munities. The first chapter provides a general introduction to the topic
of state terror, an overview of contemporary anthropological approaches
to this subject, and the outlines of an anthropological theory of state
terror. This is followed by eight ethnographic case studies, exploring
aspects of the complex, difficult, and disturbing human issue of state
terror in Argentina, Guatemala, the Philippines, Kashmir, Punjab, the
Basque Gountry, East Timor, and Northern Ireland. The volume does not