Violence, Gender, and Subjectivity

Author(s): Veena Das

Source: Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 37 (2008), pp. 283-299
Published by: Annual Reviews
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 Violence, Gender,
and Subjectivity
Veena Das

Department ofAnthropology, JohnsHopkins University, Baltimore,Maryland 21218;

email: veenadas@jhu.edu

Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2008.37:283-99

Key Words
First published online as a Review inAdvance on
contract, consent, militarization, sexuality, domestic
June 18, 2008

The Annual Review ofAnthropologyisonline at Abstract

anthro.annualreviews.org This review examines the interlockingof violence, gender, and sub
This article's doi:
jectivitywithin the overarching frameworkof the sexualization of the
10.1146/annurev.anthro.36.081406.094430
social contract.Tracking thequestion of gendered belonging to thena
Copyright ? 2008 byAnnual Reviews. tion state,the articlediscusses the anthropological literaturealongwith
All rights reserved
feministand critical theory to shed lighton the relation between re
0084-6570/08/1021-0283$20.00
production and death as a way of giving lifeto thenation-state. Sexual
and reproductiveviolence are closely linked to the social and cultural
imaginariesof order and disorder; and violence, farfrom being an in
terruptionof theordinary,is folded into theordinary.

2*3

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 INTRODUCTION lence that would otherwise remain obscure. Fi

The ethnographic record shows the concept of nally, the title'sthirdterm subjectivityindicates
the importance of the character
violence to be unstable. Instead of intersubjective
extremely
of experience (Biehl et al. 2007a, Das et al. 2000,
policing the definitionof violence, this review
deems the instability as crucial
Kleinman & Fitz-Henry 2007, Rorty 2007) as
for understand

inghow the realityof violence includes itsvir providing the ground fromwhich I analyze the
of violence. the ethno
tuality and its potential tomake and unmake
phenomena Reading

socialworlds. It also argues that the categoryof graphic record in lightof the anthropological
is crucial for what con quest to render the specificpractices thatcome
gender understanding
to be named as violence, in conjunction with
nects the national to the domestic, and em
some key texts in feministand critical
pires to colonies. The title's third term sub theory,
serves to unsettle issues. And
jectivityruns through the entire text as we see
many although
thisunsettlingmight not help us to reach any
how the subject comes to be attached to larger
firm conclusions on the nature of violence, it
collectivities giving expression to an astonish
has, at thevery least, themerit of tellinguswhat
ing range of emotions in relation to violence.
we do not yet understand.
The centralityof gender in the understand
The main of the paper are as fol
ing of violence will show the deep connec arguments
lows. First, I consider the relation between the
tions between the and the every
spectacular
social contract and the sexual contract as es
day. The scholarly and popular literatureon
violence has escalated in recent years as the tablishingconsent to thepolitical order and the
domestic order, I ask what
setded geographies of violence have been ques respectively. happens
when the social contract is sexualized: Con
tioned. There is an increasing public percep
sent is forced, even and the "social
tion that safe havens no longer exist and that parodied,
is made to appear in times of disor
peace-time violence is as debilitating as thatof
savage"
der. What relation does that bear to masculin
war (Scheper-Hughes 1997,
Scheper-Hughes as
& Bourgois 2003) Sometimes one feels that ity and femininity social constructs and to
our understanding of sexuality?The second set
there is a kind of definitionalvertigo in the de
of issues follow from the first. If the idea of
ployment of the termviolence, yet there ismerit
consent on which and domestic or
in the idea thatthe contests around thequestion political

can be named as violence are themselves

der are said to be based is in fact a fragile
of what
construction, vulnerable to a found
a at stake. There constantly
sign of something important
fore, instead of policing the definition of the ing violence that assignsmen to the political
and women to the domestic one,
termviolence I hope thatby engaging thevery community
then difficultiesof naming certain practices of
instabilityof thisdefinition,I can showwhat is
the home as violence are shown to be at the
at stake innaming something as violence. The
heart of the question of how violence and in
tide's second term gender has also undergone
revisions in recent times. timacy (both political and domestic) are inter
important conceptual
locked.Third, some key ethnographic textson
The most importantof these revisions is that
the theme of violence show how differentaf
if the category gender was supposed to stand
fects, emotions, and dispositions them
in opposition to sex in the 1960s to show the present
selves. How is it that we can find references to
constructed character of the categories of male
and it is the mutual constitution courage, sacrifice, heroism, cowardice, despair,
female, today
of sex and gender that is considered to be far grief, angst, anger, suffocation, laughter, par

more productive (Pateman 1990). Certainly in ody, longing, love, hate, disgust, horror, fear,
the analysisof violence, I find itmuch more use pain, suffering?in fact, every conceivable kind

of emotion or of the ex
ful to thinkof sex and gender as togetherpro disposition?as part

perience of violence? Do these emotions and

viding away to highlight certain aspects of vio

Das

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 come to be distributed around cat men should be ready to bear arms for the na
dispositions
egories of gender and of sexuality?How do tion and be ready to die for it (Taylor 2004).
these affects help us to understand what is a cen The second is that women's is
reproduction
tral characteristic of violence, as both seen to be rightlybelonging to the state (Meyer
actuality
and potentiality?that it inheres in everydaylife 2000, Schoenbrun 2003) so thatas citizens they
and constitutesa flightfrom it? are obligated to bear "legitimate" childrenwho
will be, in turn, ready to die for the nation
(Das 2007b). Thus sex and death, reproduction
THE POLITICAL AND and war, become of the same
part configura
SOCIAL CONTRACT tionof ideas and institutionsthroughwhich the
Recent literature on the nation-state has un nation-state sets up defenses to stave off the un

earthed the paradox thatwhile modern states certainty emanating from dangerous aliens and

claim legitimacyon the grounds that the rule from the ravages of time. Within thisbroad pic
of law established through their agency has ture are, of course, important differences, and

led to enduring social peace, in fact terrible historians have shown how ideas about death,
atrocitieshave been committed on populations preservation, and belonging evolved in specific
that threatenedexistingperceptions of national historical contexts emphasizing regulation in
unity and securityby the agencies of the state some cases, pedagogy in others (Surkis 2006).
(Asad 2003,Naimark 2001). Feminist philoso Nevertheless, historians and political philoso
phers, such as Ivekovic (2003) and MacKinnon phers demonstrate certain broad agreements

(1991), argue that it isnot somuch the ideology about the rights of nation-states to demand dif
of secularism, progress, or
biopolitics, but the ferent kinds of attachments from theirmale
definitionof the state as amasculine state that and femalemembers, which might be usefully
accounts for the gendered violence of the mod delineated here.
ern state.
Whichever adjectiveswe attach to the Because the state of nature is seen as the

idea of the stateundermodernity?biopolitical, point of mythic origin of the state (as in

route it seems to our own
progressive, secular?the through which Hobbes), appropriate begin
violence becomes of the attach on how Hobbes the emer
part subject's analysis imagined
ment to the modern state remains a
pressing gence of the state as rooted in social contract so

issue. In this context, the foundational or ori that men the perpetual warfare con
exchange

gin stories that are told about the nation-state sidered normal to the state of nature for the
within liberal philosophy about giving life to peaceful coexistence within the political com

thenation and dying for thenation are impor munity by delegating authority to the state
tant because
they
seem to normalize violence as (Hobbes 1981 [1656]). One of the frequently
part of gendered belonging to the nation-state cited passages inHobbes refers to themush
(Meyer 2000, Yuval-Davis 1997). room
analogy
in which we are asked to con

One of the places to begin an examination sider men as sprung out of the earth and sud

of these foundational stories is to consider the denly "like mushrooms, come to full
maturity,

place ofnature as inherentlyviolent and the role without all kind of engagement to each other."
that this idea plays in the creation of the polit Many feminist scholars have noted the exclu
ical.The problem, as I see it, is thatonce the sion of thewoman from this originary imag
idea ofGod as the author of nature and time ination of social order.Thus, Pateman (1980,
is displaced and the political body under sec 1988) notes that the invitationto thinkofmen
ularism is seen as subject to death and decay, as springingup likemushrooms is designed to
secular means must be crafted to ensure that obscure the fact that contractual individualism
the sovereign receives lifebeyond the lifetime is grounded in thehusband's subjugation of the
of its individualmembers (Das 2007b). This en wife who is consigned to the realm of the do
tails twoobligations.The firstobligation is that mestic without any political rights.Although

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 this line of argumentation is powerful in show theway heroic masculinity is imagined in the
inghow theprofoundlymasculine Leviathan is conduct of warfare?
formulated on the exclusion of women,
explicit
furtherthinking is required on the conditions
under which women come to be included as cer
WAR AND THE HEROIC
tain kinds of sexed citizenswithin the political VIRTUES: THE IMPERATIVES
OF THE COLLECTIVE
community.
As many scholars have noted, there is an The theme thatviolence has been "civilized" in
important shift inHobbes as compared with modern warfare owing to the mediation of law
Filmer (1991 [1653]) in that consent comes to and technology is in continuitywith the theme
play an extremely importantrole in the imag of the modern state as the guarantor of peace
ination ofHobbes for the creation of both the against diffusedviolence. The state's
monopoly
political communityand the domestic commu over whatWeber called "legitimate" violence
nity.Recall that forFilmer, fatherlyauthority does not end violence?it redistributes it (Das
over the familywas natural; the fatherwas the & Poole 2004,Weber 1948).The
stitchingto
head of the familyaccording to the divine law gether of the statewith the nation makes de
of nature and kingly authoritywas based on fa mands on men to exercise heroic virtues inwar
therly authority.
For Hobbes, in contrast, we to protect thenation. Yet the individualexperi
have a predication of fatherlyauthoritybased ence ofwar might be remarkablydifferentfrom
on consent rather than
something that is natural the public celebration of thevirtues associated
or But, as Severance (2000) notes, the with "civilized" men.
originary.
consent of the familyto be ruled by the father Although philosophers such as Bataille
is, in effect,toneutralize his power to kill.The (1957, 1961) think thatmodern war has lost
sexual contract and the social contract are then touch with the passionate visceral experience
two separate realms, but the relation between of hand to hand combat and killing (but see
these two is a vexed one.
Certainly,
as Severance Bourke 1999 for a more historically grounded
notes, the idea of the state of nature as that in view), historical and anthropological work re
which every man is in a state of war with every veal that unauthorized massacres, rape, and for
otherman should bemodified to read as that in mation of all kinds of illicit relations on the
which every fatheras the head of the family is war front occur in most wars (Karsten 1978,
inwar against every other father. The members Nordstrom 1997).Thus there is a great dispar
of each individual family "consent" not to the itybetween the public celebration of themas
sovereign's but to the father's absolute rule; they culine virtues of heroism and the actual expe
are not
parties
to the "contract" that brings the rience of soldiers as they attempt tomanage
commonwealth into existence. Unlike the con lifeand death on thewar front (Barham 2004).
sent to be ruled by the father,which protects In all major wars sinceWorld War I (WWI),
the family against him such that political so processes of censorship have been used to hide
ciety stops at the door step of the family,the from the public and even from the families of
consent to the social contract protects individ soldiers any deviations from the picture of ide
uals against each other by vesting power in the alized masculinity expected of soldiers (Fussell
sovereign but on the condition that they con 1989). An essential element in the contract be
sent to preserve the nation-state to tween the male citizen and the state was the con
by agreeing
be killed inwhat comes to be regarded as the sent to have one's body altered for the state be
sacrificialviolence offered for the preservation cause consent to kill and to die on behalf of the
of the nation. statewas assumed (Humphrey 2002). Until re
How do these politico-theological ideas cently, the citizens who
were asked to bear arms

translate into the actual practices of war and were men, of women
although participation

286 Das

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 as soldiers in both formal armies (Sasson-Levy United States and Europe, but also the disas
2003) and other formsofwarfare has increased trous withdrawals from Somalia and theWest

(DeMel 2003, Trawick 2007). A largenumber ern refusalto interveneinRwanda or inDarfur

of women have also been involved in war ef because of the fearof a high rate of casualties.
forts in such capacities as or have been The of why terms such as courage,
nursing question
coerced in providing sexual services to soldiers, heroism, sacrifice, and their opposites continue

although scholarshave only recentlybegun at is a matter

to circulate in the arena of
public

tempts to theorize the implications of female some concern. What functions do these terms

participation for awider understanding ofwar perform? In claiming legitimacyfor a nation's

fareand ofmilitarization of society (Enloe 2000, own wars
by demonstrating soldiers' "consent"

Moser & Clarke 2001, Peach 1994) that has to pay the ultimate sacrifice on the nation's be

a serious and long-lasting impact on the lives half, such

categories,
I believe, manage to cre

ofmen and women (De Mel 2007,Waller & ate boundaries between so-called civilized war

Rycenga2001). fareand savageviolence (Ignatieff1998,

Walzer
But even as far as male
experience is con 2004). Such techniques description and cat
of
much evidence indicates that soldiers are, of course, not new; were
cerned, egorization they
did not always
consent widely used during colonialwars of pacification
to the state's demands

for injuringor being injured (Humphrey 2002). (Bley 1971,Colby 1927,Mamdani 2001).What
Fussell (1975) has documented how all injury might be new is that techniques of domination
during WWI was assimilated toheroic sacrifice have shifted as war becomes more dispersed and
whatever the circumstances of the injury. Iron all kinds of social groups emerge asmirror re
ically this included soldierswho were shot at flectionsof state and empire.
thefront fordesertion butwere represented as
having incurredwar related injurieswhile fight
CIVILIZED VERSUS SAVAGE
ing the enemy.As early as 1918,
W.H.R. Rivers
"war neu In relation to the category of "civilized" war
reported that patients suffering from
rosis" due to the terribleexperiences at thewar fare, I examine two figures thathave provoked
front found itdifficult to converse about their much reflection in both scholarly and popular
war experiences because they felt defeated by literature on what is sometimes characterized as

the futilityof bringing home the experiences "barbaric"?particularly in Africa?and some

to the hearer (Rivers 1918). I do not discuss times as "nihilist" or aimless violence,
partic
here the controversies on the treatment of war
ularly in relation to the figure of the suicide
related trauma or
posttraumatic
stress disor bomber. At stake in these discussions are the
der that emerged after Vietnam veterans
began West's assumptions about the legitimacyof its
to seek as own wars?this is obvious?but in addi
help for such symptoms recurring much

insomnia, and the inability to re tion there seem to be

unspoken anxieties about
nightmares,
late (Young 1995). I note, however, that it isonly what one might call a clash ofmasculinities.
throughmedicalization of their symptomsthat Harrison's (1993) acute analysis of the tran
soldiers foundways of overcoming the obliga formationof identityin Sepikwarfare provides
tion tomaintain a stoic and heroic view of their an example of a differentmodel of sociality
war
experiences. and masculinity than that described above for
Technological shiftshave certainly led to a the classic case of war in European theories.

deployment of high-techweapons on the part Harrison makes a case for,what I would call,
ofWestern powers, which enables remote war the incommensurability (not simply untrans
fare with minimal casualties to one's own side. latability)ofwar practices among the
Manambu
The public tolerance forhigh casualties has de people of themiddle Sepik river and the in
clined considerably in theWest as evidenced terpretationsof these practices by the colo
in not only the antiwar movements in the nial Australian authorities.For theAustralian

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 authorities, theManambu were displaying a cious fighters, feared for their brutality. For in
Hobbesian state of nature when went into in Sierra Leone, where war
they stance, raged for
warfarewith theirclosest neighborswith whom more than a decade, child soldiers were made

theyhad maintained ties of close sociality.For participants in thesewars by all sides of the con
the Manambu, violence was
premised upon flict (Hoffman 2006). The enduring images of
preexisting social ties so thatwarfare was di this and otherwars included limbs amputated
rected toward cutting off social ties. Through by young rebels, hunters adornedwith magical
theuse of body decorations andmasks, thewar protection tomake theirbodies immune to bul
riors converted themselves into dangerous spir letwounds, blood diamonds, drugs, and abduc
itswho could kill precisely those with whom tionofyoung girls for sexual services (Hoffman
theyhad intimacythathad become unsupport 2003).
able. In taking on the identities of the spir How are gender relations implicated in this
its, Harrison argues, the men were
completely form of militarization of society? For many
absorbed within the collective?all individual scholars, the emergence of child soldiers and
relations were severed. This complex relation theirbrutalityinwarfare signals a crisisofyouth
between violence and a differentkind of so indicating
a breakdown of generational con

cialitywas incomprehensible to theAustralian nections and traditional

patrimonial
resources
colonistswho took these kinds of events to be (Boyden & de Berry 2004, Hoffman 2005).
sign of barbarism that had to be eliminated However, there was also an
aspect of experi

throughpunitive expeditions.The warrior fig mentation with differentkinds ofwarriormod

ure, thus,might draw fromdifferentkinds of els in these wars, of which Moran (1995)
social and cosmological imaginaries from the provides
an excellent
example. She shows that
ones tied to nation-states described above. For significantchanges occurred in theway youth
example, rather than
emphasizing
consent to
adopted different models of fightersduring the
kill or be killed on behalf of the largercollectiv civilwar inLiberia. Initiallyafterthe 1980 coup,
itysuch as thenation, thewarriormight be seen itwas the cosmopolitan model of soldierlyde
as someone who iswaging war not as himself but and ethic that was as soldiers
portment valued,
as an ancestral
spirit,
as in theMalenesian case. embodied the image of idealized masculinity
However, as the Australian colonists' response throughwhich they imagined themselves as
to this form of warfare indicates, such practices participating in a universalworldwide military
came to be measured
against the ideas of civ culture. By 1995, the soldier model was dis
ilizedwarfare leading to brutal suppression by credited and another model, that of the warrior,
colonial authorities.At stakehere is thedistinc was adopted with roots inAfrican traditions in
tion between Western warfare, which was con which warfare was ritualized and warrior fig
sidered rulebound, rational,andmasculine, and ures were said to have
deep connections with
violence in other places, which was considered elemental forces of nature,
especially the for
anarchic and animal like. est.What is intriguing inMoran's analysis of
Examples ofwarfare that deviate from the this transition from soldier to warrior is the
classical model of war are the so-called low way inwhich elements of femininityseem to
intensitywars in large parts of Africa, which be parodied as part of the rituals enacted.Thus
have some unique features.
Mbembe (2000) sees male warriors in the course of
performing
war

in these wars a crisis of and dances wear women's such as bras and
sovereignty subjec clothing
tivity,as various kinds of flows of people and negligees, wigs, and other items ofWestern
weapons, from international organizations,
cor
origin.The description suggests thatwhat, to
as well as transborder movements of modern armies, were ludic in
porations, performances
goods define and remap the region. A defin volving personification and parodying of the
ing feature of these wars was the emergence female body seem to have become part of the
of child soldiers and youth who became fero imaginaryof soldier/warriorfigures inAfrica

288 Das

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 even as the
cosmopolitan models come under on thegrounds thattheyseek to liberatewomen
attack. of these countries from the oppressive practices
of Islamic groups such as theTaliban, who have
waged war against the "human rightsof their
THE SUICIDE BOMBER own women" (Benhabib 2001). Although the
AND NIHILISTIC VIOLENCE cruelties of theTaliban are not inquestion, it is
The literatureon suicide bombing has prolif intriguing that the theory of just war manages

erated since September

11. There seems to be to definemany cruelties committed by soldiers
remarkable agreement among scholars that sui (including those on women) as simply "collat
cide bombing marks a pathology of contem eral damages," regrettable but not crimes at all.

porary Islam and especially of itsyoung men The discursive techniques tomake certainkinds
(Benhabib 2001, Bloom 2005, Etienne 2005, of violence by dominant groups (colonizers,
Gambetta 2005, Pedazhur 2005, Strenski2003; occupiers, white races, upper castes) disappear
but see Skaine 2006 for a somewhat pedantic have led to agonizing feministdiscussions of the
surveyon female suicide bombers). The typ post-September
11 scenario because address

ical argument calls such violence nihilist be ing the violence done to women as
part of re
cause it assumes that the common motive of pressive regimes in some parts of the Islamic
theyoung Islamicmilitant is to seek a decisive world is so often used tomake the complicity
and yet elusive encounter with death. More ofWestern regimes in supporting those very
over, suicide bombing is said to evoke horror regimes lessvisible to thepublic (Abu-Lughod
because the bomber uses his or her own body 2002, Charlesworth & Chinkin 2002, Cooke
as a weapon. What is intriguing in such state 2002, Eisenstein 2002).
ments is that the internallifeofyoungmen who
engage inviolence of thisparticular kind is as
sumed to be transparent.Asad (2007) has per
EMBODYING EMPIRE:
that one cannot assume that
SEXUALIZED VIOLENCE
suasively argued
all men who become suicide bombers, even as
AND TORTURE
jihadists,have the same motives. Surprisingly Recent instances of sexualized torture at Abu

these theories that talk about the pathology of Ghraib have raised fresh questions about the
Islam fail to consider the figureof the female relation among race, gender, and violence
suicide bomber in Sri Lanka, where explana (Greenberg 2006, Strasses 2005). The violence
tions have
ranged from rendering them as en inflictedon Iraqi prisoners by bothmale and fe
gaged in a fightfor justicefor the cause ofTamil male North American and British soldierscould
nationalism (Sangarasivam 2003) to consider not be disavowed as only thework of a few "bad
ing theirparticipation tobe completely coerced apples" as theArmy claimed, especially ifwe
by thebrutal techniques ofLiberation Tigers of take into account not
only the actual practices of
Tamil Eelam (LITE), rangingfrom abducting torturebut also the circulation of photographs
youth to forcing families to give at least one that recorded these spectacles to friends and
child to themilitant organization as a form of familyforpleasure (Paur 2004). The theme of
taxation (Hoglunge 2005). humiliating the "enemy" through effeminizing
The distinction between the "just"wars of men thathas been recorded formany colonial
West and thenihilistviolence of the suicide
the contexts (Krishnaswamy 1998, Sinha 1995)was
bombers has enabled some scholars to justify also witnessed in theAbu Ghraib case. How
the idea of preemptivewar (Benhabib 2001; and ever, the use of women as perpetrators was a

for a more nuanced but stillproblematic view new development.The photograph of a young
Walzer 2004). Like the defense of colonial oc female soldierpointing gleefullyat the genitals
cupation in the past as the inevitableburden of of a crouching naked Arab man was shocking
thewhite man, the new wars are also justified tomany people and especially to feministswho

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 had long argued thatwar was primarilyan affair sexualized parts, stripping, simulated forced ho

among men. moerotic sex, which seem similar to

practices
Razack (2005) argues that theAbu Ghraib at Abu Ghraib. Razack summarizes the theo

practices of torture, both visual and retical argument that sexualized vio
corporeal, by saying
should be understood in terms of the man lence accomplishes the eviction of the tortured
ner in which individuals are interpellated in from humanity, and it does so as an eviction
the structure of empire so that even when
they frommasculinity (Mehta 2000 andMookherjee
are not themselves dominant within patriarchal 2004 for a similar argument for South Asia).
and racisthierarchies, theycan claim inclusion White men could then claim their own inno
within the projects of empire by literallyem cence by masking violence as punishment for
bodying it. Some otherwriters seeAbu Ghraib black crime (and especially the crime ofwant
as an instantiation of a contemporary form of ingwhite women), thusmaking white violence
tortureand do not see any long history embed disappear.Unfortunately, similaranalysisof the
ded in it.They argue for instrumentalexpla training of the senses to engage in violent acts

nations in thatAmerican intelligence agencies' such as beheadings or amputation of limbs on

use of sexualized practices, especially through thepart ofyoung people inmilitant camps or in
the agency of a woman, was to en warfare or even a
designed guerilla genealogical tracking
gineer a collapse of the Arab prisoners who, of such imageswithin other cultural contexts
itwas assumed, would information more has not been undertaken. Hence some caution
yield

quickly if theywere sexuallyhumiliated rather has to be exercised inmaking large theoreti

than subjected to physical pain. Certain imag cal claims. Nevertheless, systematic compari
inaries of Arab culture as "homophobic" and son on the question of sexual humiliation and

"misogynist"
are at
play here. Still others jux its linkwith projects ofmasculine domination
tapose the image of torturewith thatof thebe might yield important insights into these trou
heading carried out by Islamicmilitants as in bling phenomena.
stantiations of the category of homo sacer (as in

Agamben 1998) and argue that the images rep

resent a contest over THE SOCIAL SAVAGE
sovereignty (Caton 2006).
We are also leftwith the question of how the The pathology of the sexualization of the so
senses were trained so that American soldiers, cial contract becomes most visible in the fig
both men and women, could take pleasure in ure of the abducted woman in times of dis
thesekinds of sexualhumiliation inflictedon the order (Das 2007a, Menon & Bhasin 1998,
other. After all, the pictures of torture that were
Mookherjee 2001). Feminist scholarswriting
circulatedwere not of grim soldiersperforming on ethnic cleansing and genocide have sug
a distastefuldutybut ofmen andwomen taking gested that the fundamental idea underlying
pleasure in the sexual humiliation inflictedon both these forms of collective violence is that
the dominated other. of social death (Card 2003). One implication
There is littledoubt thatthe formsof sexual of the notion of social death is that a woman
ized humiliationwitnessed inAbu Ghraib bear who has been abducted and raped becomes dis
similarityto such practices as lynching (Austin honored and either chooses death herself or is
2004), even if direct connections are difficult rejected by the family (Das 1995). However,
to establish.The essence of lynchingand burn asDas (2007a) argues, the collective narratives
ing rituals lay in the sense of power andmastery of honor and shame often conceal from pub
forwhitemen over black subjects (Brown 1975, lic view the effortsfamiliesmight make to find
Harris 1984),while allowing them to obtain in ways of offering care to
daughters
or wives, de

timacywithwhat was forbidden to desire (Pinar viating from the collective scriptsof honor and
2001). Cardyn (2002) provides a catalog ofprac shame. At another level, the concept of social
tices in lynchingsuch aswhipping of distinctive death allows us to
recognize that genocidal acts

2go Das

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or acts of ethnic while often violent, An that arises in this
cleansing, important question
are as
are not
always homicidal. Thus forced steriliza context is whether there any common
tion of women or men from a made about male and female sex
targeted group, sumptions

forciblyseparatingwomen from their children uality in processes of legal adjudication when

for reeducation, as happened to children in in judges
are confronted with cases of mass rape

digenous groups inAustralia, or even forcibly versus rape (individual or gang

rape)
as a peace

assimilating
them into another group,
as has time crime (Baxi 2007). On the surface, one
been alleged byTibet forChinese policies of might think that in times of peace when rape
forcible assimilation, could all be considered is identifiedas a "crime," lawwould function
as forms of social death and hence forms of to identifyand punish theperpetrator,whereas
genocide or ethnic cleansing.This would ex in the case ofmass rapes,which typicallytake
plain why policies of ethnic cleansing or geno place in times ofmassive disorder, the prob
cide specificallytargetwomen and direct both lemwould be that law itselfstands suspended.
sexual and violence toward them; However, some structural similari
reproductive important
women are seen as the cultural and ties in assumptions made about male and female
biologi
cal repositories of ethnic or religious groups sexuality in the functioning of the law show
(Fisher 1996). Thus, for instance, sexual or continuity between the peace-time "crime" of

violence Bosnian Muslim rape and the mass rapes, which are taken as
reproductive against
women was framed by
a discourse of revenge the sign of a complete breakdown of law (Baxi
and humiliation related to some kind of "Ser 2007).
Muslim population.Many fem
bization" of the
inistscholarshave spoken of the "rape regime"
inwhich Bosnian women were forciblyinterned THE RAPE TRIAL: LAW
in and made to carry their pregnancies
AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
camps
to term. (Allen 1996, Salzman 2002). Similarly, Despite differences in the definitionof rape in
Pakistani soldierswho rapedwomen during the differentlegal traditions,two ideas seem to be
war for liberation inBangladesh in 1972 partic consistentlypresent.The firstis that the act of
ipated in a discourse of the effeminateIslam in rape consists of some form of penetration of a

Bangladesh, which needed to be investedwith woman (and, in some cases, a man) and second
more muscular and purer Islam (Mookherjee thatthisact isforced,without the consent of the
2001, Saikia 2004). This situationmay be dif woman or man concerned. Whereas some femi
ferentfrom the one that prevailed during the nist scholars argue that rape is simply an expres

partition of India, when therewas widespread sion of general male violence against
women

sexual violence but the discourse of reproduc (Brownmiller 1975), others have argued that
tiveviolence was not in circulation (Das 2007a). we need to trackmore specificallyhow the le
Rather, a lot of violence marked the women gal system functions to authorize male violence
of the other groups as
"spoiled," and violence, againstwomen (Das 2005, Smart 1995).Which
actual and fantasized, treated women's bodies kinds ofmen are punished for the offense of
asmeans of humiliating themen of the other rape, and how does the legal systemfunctionto
community. Mass rape of women, reproductive distinguish "good" women from"badwomen"?
violence in the form of forcible pregnancies, Detailed examination of legal cases and espe
and abduction for forcedmarriages are differ ciallywhatMatoesian (1993) calls "court room
ent formsinwhich the complete annihilationof talk" reveal that categories of caste, class, and
theother as a collective community is sought in race have a serious impact on the legal deci
projects of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Re sions on rape.Women are implicitlytreated as
turn to normalcy draws heavily upon ideas of the property of men so that rape comes to be

honor and shame at both familial and national defined not as an offense
against the woman's
levels.
bodily integritybut as an offense against the

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 property rightsof theman who isher guardian. WHAT IS HOME?
The legal reasoning deployed works with the
Powerful of the home as a haven, a
imageries
notion that men are sexual
savages, "naturally" of and have in
place intimacy nourishment,
positioned to takewomen, and theyhave to be formed literaryand cultural theory (Bachelard
controlled an education of sexual de
through
1964). However, the home is the space of not
sire. Women, however, are divided into good
one but several domesticities. Recent research
women and bad women; the former are women
on violence in thehome thathas tried to docu
who are in the custody of fathersor husbands
ment women's has shown that dif
experiences
and have no historyof sexual promiscuity.The
ferent people within the home experience it
courts are much more to their trust
likely place The home is often theplace of
very differently.
inwomen who are thus securelybound within
masculine dominion in which the man expects
the sanctioned structures of marriage. The bad
the women's labor to secure the peace he craves
such as
women, prostitutes, by their very pro
(Price 2002). The high prevalence ofwife beat
fession are seen to be of saying "no" to
incapable
sex (Baxi 2007,Das 2005). Legal reasoning then ing, child abuse, and female domestic servant
abuse in various societies across class has been
works to punish thosemen who have violated
analyzed by various scholars and tends to show
the rightsofmen, especially thosewho can be
that thehome can be a place of terrorformany
placed in a higher position as comparedwith the women who are blamed fornot being able to
alleged perpetrator (Kannibaran & Kannibaran maintain the ideal home. Thus male dominion
2002) and to display publicly thedistinctionbe over the home often translates into wife beat
tween women and bad women
good by pro of women
ing: Testimonies who have been bat
upon whose "no" to sex can be con
nouncing tered show that theyusually cannot anticipate
verted to "consent" because of their sexual
when the blows will come and forwhat reason.
Many women tend to blame themselves for the
history.

Although legal reasoning and court room

beatings theyreceived because theyhave inter
talk have received the most attention in the
nalized their husbands' accusations of failing to
one must that most
analysis of rape, remember
create the ideal home. Others find it impossi
cases do not reach the court room even if
rape ble to leave the abusive relationshipbecause all
is reported. Scholars are now to pay
beginning theirsocial networks derive fromtheirpositions
attention to forms of that are gener
sociality aswives (Abraham 2000, Gelles & Straus 1988,
ated in spaces such as hospital emergency rooms
Hoff 1990). Help from state agencies is often
and police stations, where a certain set of as
hard to obtain because tend to treat
policemen
sumptions about what is private and what is
violence in the home as a affair between
private
public and what might stand in a court of law As awareness of domestic violence has
spouses.
and what might not determines how a case pro
increased and as itbecomes framed as a public
ceeds (Hoyle 1998,Merry 2001,Wood 2005).
health issue,various initiativesfrom the global
In termsof ordinary life,the threatof sexualvi
and national communities have tried tomake
olence has a profound effecton the subjectivity
this amatter of priority.The conceptual issues
ofwomen who constantlyhave to consider such
of definingwhat constitutesdomestic violence,
factorsas reputation and safetyin determining
however, have not all been resolved.
how life is to be lived.Yet, statisticson sex
First, the discomfort with the state's inter
ual violation reveal that in most cases the per
vention into family life is not only a matter
petrator of sexual violence is someone known
of conservative defense of the Some
family.
or even intimate with a woman rather than a
feminist scholars have argued that the privacy
stranger (Gavey 2005, Gelles & Straus 1988,
necessary for intimacy to flourish is deeply
Price 2002). So what is intimateviolence? The
compromised by the state's overseeing panop
place to consider in addressing this question is tical surveillance of the home (Kelly 2003).
the home.

292 Das

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Because sexual intimacy generates complex does time do itswork in allowing people to
emotions, a definition of domestic violence come to terms with the destruction of their so

that includes everythingfrom beating to harsh cialworlds (Jackson 2002)?How can people in
words spoken can lead to a decline in thepossi herit a divided past, andwhat is itto imagine and
bilityof intimacyitself.
These scholars suggest towork fora possible future?Some studies ask if
a model of in the obligation of women to convert bad deaths
community-based pedagogical
tervention inmany cases rather than a punitive into good deaths (Seremetakis 1991) through
model for controllingviolence. mourning and lamentation moves from the

Second, the question of consent is as hard spheres of kinship to that of politics so that
to negotiate conceptually in defining domes women are seen as
specially obligated
to contest

tic violence as in defining soldier's participa the forgetfulnessimposed by dominant politi

tion inwar. On the one side there are scholars cal actors (especially the state) and to demand
who would argue that separating out battered justiceon behalf of thedead (Butler 2004). The
women from other women or violent homes variousTruth andReconciliation Commissions
from peaceful homes isfraughtwith problems established in various countries such as South

because underlying the ideological grid divid Africa,Chile, Peru, andArgentina are premised
ing the social
contract and the sexual contract on the idea that, in addition to the operation of
is the ever possible presence ofmale violence the criminal justice system,which can address
in the home (Pateman 1980, Price 2002). The culpabilityof individuals,societies thathave un
woman's consent to male violence has a taken massive violence over
dergone state-sponsored

for-granted character, which explains why

mar a long period of time need a public forum in
ital rape has been most difficultto legislate in which the atrocities enacted on people can be
most liberal regimes. On the other side are brought to lightoutside the strict legal proto
thosewho argue that there are specific condi cols of courts of law (Popkin & Roht-Arriaza
tions underwhich violence isactualized and that 1995,Wilson 2001). Anthropologists working
strategies such as the battered woman defense on these commissions have found, however,
are necessary to capture the fact that a woman that despite the freedom to narrate their expe

who lives in constant fearofviolencemight per riences of violence, women often spoke
on be

ceive a reasonable risk toher safetyinways that half of theirkin butwere unable to give voice to
deviate considerablyfrom the legal norms of a sexual violence done to them personally (Ross
"reasonable person" (Schneider 2000). 2003).
Third, recent research has indicated struc
Although public acknowledgment of harm
tural connections between wider political and is important and has received enormous atten

economic processes and the vulnerability of do tion in juridical and public policy literature,
mestic workers as a category
subject
to abuse thework done in the recesses of everyday life,
within thehome (Goldstein 2005, Rafael 2000, within local communities, kinship networks,
Romero 1992). Research will likely show that and families has received somewhat less at

the categories ofmail-order brides, domestic tention.Lawrence's (2000) work on possession

helps, and sexualworkers might share certain within a temple complex inBatticaloa, Eastern
common conditions derivingfrom theplace of Sri Lanka, gives a detailed analysis of how a
the domestic within transnational economies. priestess in a temple compound addresses the
fear,grief,guilt, and shame of survivorsand of
thosewhose loved ones have disappeared in the
REMAKING THE EVERYDAY
protracted civilwar in Sri Lanka. The coming
Research on gender and violence is not only togetherof a priestess, thegoddessKali, and the
about how worlds are unmade by violence but women who seek some direction in relation to

also how theyare remade (Das et al. 2001). How their disappeared relatives creates a
community

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of women
(though
men are not absent from VIOLENCE AND AFFECT
the consultations) who are not vis
necessarily One can read the ethnographic record to iden
ible to the juridical or public policy commu
cru
tifya range of affects in the description of vi
nities but whose "work" is nevertheless
olence. Thus although one might expect that
cial in that it allows women to move out of
fear and horror and sorrow and grief,would
theirfrozen positions and to take other direc
be the appropriate emotions in the context of
tions in their lives.Other scholars have argued
violence (Feldman et al. 1993), one finds that
thatwomen might perform privatemourning
thereare also ludic aspects of violence thatpose
rituals for those killed, often at great risks
new to how we understand violence.
challenges
to themselves, refusing to let a death go un
One of themost strikingethnographic account
mourned (Das 2007a, Holloway 2003,Walker
on youth in the LTTE is the recent book
by
n.d.). Trawick (2007), who lived in an LTTE village
Whereas the literature on violence and heal
inEastern Sri Lanka on the border of the for
ing emphasizes various aspects of witnessing
est. Her work shows how of war
categories
and memory (Agamben 1999, Bougarel et al.
and play become interchangeable in the lives
2007), some innovative work also addresses at
of young LTTE cadres. In her own preface to
tempts to keep violence at bay. Argenti-Pillen theproject, she says that theLTTE Tigers rep
(2003), for instance,described various linguistic resented thebattles theyfoughtas "child'splay,"
evasion used women in the home
strategies by and but
"fully intense, concentrated, serious,
to keep the home insulatedfrom the region's
also elevated above the mundane world, and
poisonous politics. Some cultural continuities
fun." (Trawick 2007, p. 13).Trawick's explicit
exist in language (use of euphemisms, refusalof
theoretical formulation makes a break
sharp
naming, indirect speech) throughwhich ritual between and and is
representation experience
to the home are addressed and are also
dangers thereforeproblematic, but the power of this
extended for keeping political dangers at bay.
book lies in something akin to reading thenov
Although keeping violence at bay isnot amatter elist Kazuo
Ishiguro's novel, Never Let Me Go.
of formsof discourse alone; theproblem ofhow
The novel tells of hopelessness of the lives of
women and men try to insulate the home from
bred to be organ but we come
clones, "donors",
detrimental politics is clearly a very important
to sense theaffectsofhopelessness only through
area of research (Skidmore & Lawrence 2007,
themost ordinary of everyday squabbles and
Spencer 2000). childhood politics staged in a typical British
Some authors have contested the centrality
public school environment. Could it be that
of trauma discourse and its emphasis on un
the realityof killing and being killed,which is
mastered experience. Thus Das (2007a) con
openly spoken about among theLTTE youth, is
siders the manner in which women engage
both known and yet never fullycomprehended?
in repair of relationships through ordinary,
Yet the theoreticalmove byTrawick thatdrives
everyday acts of caring. She thinks of heal a between and experience
wedge representation
ing through themetaphor of women digest leaves thisauthor at the point atwhich I under
ing "poisonous" knowledge so that they learn stand neither how shewould render the
to reinhabit theworld by dwelling againwithin long
ingsforescape fromtheLTTE, recorded inher
internal landscapes devastated by violence (see
ethnography,or how the reader should think
alsoMookherjee 2006). Aretxaga (1998) shows
about moments of grief, inwhich the young
how women maintained networks of relation
men and women are not allowed to in
simply
ships through everyday acts of borrowing and
dulge. Although I respectTrawick's insistence
lending in the divisive politics of Ireland, thus that the "children" do not wish to be fullyac
confrontingand crossing thepolitical divides in counted for in any theory,there is no place in
their everyday acts of mutual (see
recognition her textforanyperspective fromthosewho fled,
also Walker n.d).

Das

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for example, from theLTTE. In this respect, isAsad's (2007) incisiveanalysisofhorror,which
the permission given
to an
anthropologist
to he identifiesas the spectacle of the disintegra
work in an area controlled by theLTTE works tion of thehuman body and the sense of thedis
verymuch like research visas given by govern sociation between the soul and the body, seen
ments who impose strict rules about what can be in the act of killing and being killed in suicide
written about and how it is to be written.These bombing. These three textsprovide examples
texts then bear the marks of of the pioneering contributions anthropology
anthropological
power in many respects.
can make to the understanding of the differ
Verkaaik (2004), who had worked with the ent affects that constitute and are constituted

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) mili by violence. As a concluding thought, I pro

tants in Karachi, also considered the ludic as pose that it is precisely because the reality of
pects of violence but conveyed the difference violence includes itsvirtual (and not only actu
between those activistswho took the "tun" of alized) presence in our lives (Jeganathan 1998,
militancy as part of their identitiesand as an es 2000)?its potential to both disrupt the ordi
cape from themundane everyday and those who nary and become part of theordinary?that the
turned back to ordinary lives of careers and mar study of violence continues to challenge and
riage and into caring for the next channel our disciplinary desires in profound
presumably
generation. At the opposite end of these affects ways.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The author isnot aware of any biases thatmight be perceived as affectingthe objectivityof this
review.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thankmy colleagues and graduate studentsat theJohnsHopkins University for the stimulating
intellectualenvironmenttheyprovide. I am especially grateful to SylvainPerdigon forhis insights
into the questions of violence and the ordinary and toDeepak Mehta, whose work on violence
continues to open new doors for me.

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