"Grounded in extensive oral historical, archival, and ethnographic research in the aftermaths of the Bosnian (1992-95), Indonesian (1965-66), and Rwandan (1994) genocides, this book investigates the symbolic meanings associated with spectacular forms of torture, murder, and mutilation that perpetrat ... ors devise amid genocides to punish their intended victims. Often framed as "senseless" acts of cruelty in popular culture, the stories told by the survivors, eyewitnesses, and perpetrators examined in this book instead reveal the perpetrators' intentional use of symbolic violence to torture and kill their victims, and to undermine victim communities' social vitality in long-lasting ways. Erin Jessee and Annie Pohlman explore four inter-related forms of symbolic violence: the destruction of the victim groups' cultural heritage; atrocities against children and elders; forms of humiliation, assault, and mutilation that target victims in gendered and sexualized ways; and atrocities intended to undermine the spiritual vitality of living and deceased victims. They argue that these forms of extra-lethal violence intentionally inflict social death by drawing on culturally specific symbols and tropes. The cases examined in this book show how perpetrators undermine or destroy the biological elements of victim groups through torture and killings, alongside the constituent parts of the victim group's social vitality: the historical, cultural, and social bonds that give meaning to and sustain communities." (Publisher description) more

"Doing Oral History is considered the premier guidebook to oral history, used by professional oral historians, public historians, archivists, and genealogists as a core text in college courses and throughout the public history community. The recent development of digital audio and video recording te ... chnology has continued to alter the practice of oral history, making it even easier to produce and disseminate quality recordings. At the same time, digital technology has complicated the preservation of the recordings, past and present. This basic manual offers detailed advice for setting up an oral history project, conducting interviews and using oral history for research, making video recordings, preserving oral history collections in archives and libraries, and teaching and presenting oral history." (Publisher description) more