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

Alexander Laban Hinton

Published by University of California Press 2004

Why Did They Kill?

Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide

Alexander Laban Hinton

Volume 11 in the series California Series in Public Anthropology

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520937949

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Hinton Alexander Laban :

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).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Timeline Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Personages Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Introduction: In the Shadow of Genocide Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part ONE. The Prison without Walls Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Part TWO. The Fire without Smoke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Note on Transliteration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 382

eBook

Published: December 6, 2004
ISBN: 9780520937949