CIVILIZATION and GENOCIDE by CHRISTOPHER JOHN POWELL, B.A., M.A. a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Resea
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CIVILIZATION AND GENOCIDE by CHRISTOPHER JOHN POWELL, B.A., M.A. A thesis submitted to The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario November 2004 © copyright 2004, Christopher John Powell Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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Abstract This dissertation argues that civilization produces genocides. It begins by considering the obstacles to a sociological understanding of genocide. First among these is the metaphysics of rupture that situates genocide radically outside the field of ordinary social relations, treating it as a breakdown, rather than as a product, of social relations. A second obstacle is the essentially contested status of the concept of ‘genocide’, which must be understood historically, through genealogical and figurational analysis. A third obstacle is the relative over-development of heroic sociologies of genocide, which focus on the production of an intending collective subject, and the relative under-development of anti-heroic sociologies that attend to difference, to relations, and to strategies of un making. I theorize genocide using Norbert Elias’s figurational analysis of the European civilizing process, which traces the intertwined growth of state institutions, particularly the state’s territorial monopoly of military force, and of forms of self-regulation and habitual conduct that have come to be seen as civilized behaviour. Through a deconstructive reading of Elias’s texts, I overcome the limits set by Elias’s residual essentialism and Eurocentrism, which naively equates civilization with pacification, to produce instead an account of how the expansion of the civilizing process involves the reproduction of social violence on an ever-expanding scale. Under some circumstances, this process of ‘barbarous civilization’ is realized through genocidal violence, or ‘civilizing genocides’. Finally, I apply this framework to the analysis of six historical examples of civilizing genocides: in Languedoc, Guatemala, Tasmania, India, Turkey, and Rwanda. I show that these examples, some of which are not usually considered genocides, can fruitfully and appropriately be treated as such, and how each of these events, usually considered examples of the failure or the breakdown or the limits of European civilization, are better understood as instances of its expansion. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments I wish to extend my warmest thanks to my doctoral committee, for having vested their confidence in a certain junior Ph.D. student with no definite theoretical platform and no plan for his dissertation, and for their unflagging support and enthusiasm through the various transformations of this project. In particular, I’d like to thank Jacques Chevalier for invaluable practical suggestions that shortened this project, and for difficult intellectual questions that strengthened it; Rianne Mahon for crucial advice on how to handle my historical examples; and Bruce Curtis for inestimable support and mentorship generously given throughout my master’s and doctoral studies. The sociology program at Carleton University grants doctoral students the freedom and the responsibility of setting their own research agendas, and I’m grateful to my committee for honouring that framework and enabling me to construct this project on my own terms. All shortcomings of this work are, of course, entirely my own doing. I am exceptionally fortunate to have been situated within a vibrant student community whose social, political, and intellectual engagements made graduate school a wonderland for me. For specific contributions to my dissertation process, I would like to thank: Melanie White, for close critical readingings of my comprehensives and proposal, and for incalculable engagement, support, and inspiration over many years; Seana Keedian, for editorial comments on drafts of Chapters II and III; Zoey Michele, for checking my use of Derrida in Chapter IV; and Sheryl Peters, for discussing Elias and genocide with me tirelessly over the last year of writing. Other friends and interlocutors I would like to recognize include Greg Gillespie, Mythili Rajiva, Serena Petrella, Kim Elliott, Paul Datta, Kevin Dahlke, and Jeff Shantz. I would like to thank my parents, Mark and Eugenia, both for their material support and for their continued enthusiasm for my graduate studies, and my siblings, Sonya, Dave, and Sherri, for always taking an interest and rarely asking when it will be finished. This dissertation would not have been possible without financial support from the Carleton University Graduate Scholarship, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contents, Brief INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I: THE METAPHYSICS OF RUPTURE 13 1. G e n o c id e S t u d ie s 14 2. M e t h o d s 45 CHAPTER II: IDENTIFYING GENOCIDE 54 1. Po in t a n d P u r p o s e 5 7 2. W hat is G e n o c id e? 68 3. O n V a l u e -F r e e d o m 105 4. How TO USE ‘GENOCIDE’ 123 CHAPTER III: ANTI-HEROIC SOCIOLOGY 129 1. S t r a t e g ie s o f M ak in g a n d U n m a k in g 130 2. H e r o ic T h e o r y 141 3. A n t i-H e r o ic T h e o r y 161 CHAPTER IV: CIVILIZING GENOCIDES 189 1. T eleological C ivilization 190 2. C ivilization D econstructed 213 3. A F igurational S o c io l o g y o f G e n o c id e 239 CHAPTER V: GENOCIDAL CIVILIZATION 248 1. La n g u e d o c a n d G u a tem a la 258 2. T a s m a n ia a n d In d ia 299 3. O t t o m a n E m p ir e a n d Rw a n d a 353 CHAPTER VI: INCONCLUSIONS 404 1. Recapitulation 404 2. Implications f o r U nderstanding 407 3. Implications f o r P r a xis 412 APPENDIX I: DEFINITIONS OF GENOCIDE 417 U n it e d N a t io n s 4 1 7 O t h e r D e f in it io n s: 4 1 7 APPENDIX II: SOCIOLOGY AND GENOCIDE 424 SOURCES 431 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contents, Detailed INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I: THE METAPHYSICS OF RUPTURE 13 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................13 1. G e n o c id e S t u d ie s 14 1.1 Particularism and Particular Uniqueness.........................................................................................14 1.2 Liberal Genocide Studies and Generalized Uniqueness.................................................................21 1.3 Bridging the Theory Gap: Beyond General Uniqueness...............................................................36 2. M e t h o d s 45 2.1 Conceptual Commitments....................................................................................................................45 2.2 Aims........................................................................................................................................................ 49 CHAPTER II: IDENTIFYING GENOCIDE 54 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................54 1. Po in t a n d P u r p o s e 57 1.1 Point........................................................................................................................................................57