The El Mozote Massacre: Anthropology and Human Rights (Hegemony and Experience) - Softcover

Binford, Leigh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816516626 ISBN 13: 9780816516629

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1996

Synopsis

The 1981 slaughter of more than a thousand civilians around El Mozote, El Salvador, by the country's U.S.-trained army was the largest massacre of the Salvadoran civil war. The story was covered—and soon forgotten—by the international news media. It was revived in 1993 only when the U.S. government was accused of covering up the incident.

Such reportage, argues anthropologist Leigh Binford, sustains the perception that the lives of Third World people are only newsworthy when some great tragedy strikes. He critiques the practices of journalists and human rights organizations for their dehumanizing studies of "subjects" and "victims." Binford suggests that such accounts objectify the people involved through statistical analyses and bureaucratic body counts while the news media sensationalize the motives and personalities of the perpetrators.

In relating the story of this tragic event, Binford restores a sense of history and social identity to the fallen people of this Salvadoran village. Drawing on interviews he conducted with El Mozote-area residents, he offers a rich ethnographic and personal account of their lives prior to the tragedy. He provides an overview of the history and culture of the area and tells how such a massacre could have happened, why it was covered up, and why it could happen again.

About this title

About the Author

Leigh Binford is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut.

Reviews

In 1981, a U.S.-trained military hit squad went into the El Salvadoran village of El Mozote and massacred 1000 innocents, mostly women and children. The incident received scant attention in the United States until 1993, when the U.S. government was accused of covering it up. Binford (anthropology, Univ. of Connecticut) criticizes our press for failing to emphasize the humanity of the victims so that Americans simply view the atrocity as "things that happen elsewhere." He also chastizes the press for failing to note the complicity of U.S. representatives who lie to Congress about human rights abuses. Binford tries to restore the humanity of El Mozote's victims by giving an ethnographic account of their lives, emphasizing the villagers as a social system. Nevertheless, Mark Danner's The Massacre at El Mozote (LJ 5/15/94) offers a more powerful and readable account and will appeal more to lay readers. Binford doesn't add much to the story except that his book was written later so he had the advantage of later research. For special collections.?Louise F. Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816516626
• ISBN 13: 9780816516629
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 263