TY - JOUR
T1 - Dehumanization in War and Peace
T2 - Encounters with Lebanon's Ex-Militia Fighters
AU - Hermez, Sami
N1 - Funding Information:
I wish to thank Muzna Al-Masri, Debbora Battaglia, John Borneman, Lara Deeb, Sabine El-Chamaa, Chris Garces, Carol Greenhouse, Abdellah Hammoudi, Diala Hawi, Helena Nassif, Michelle Obeid, and Rabih Saloum for various support and conversations as I developed this paper; audiences at Northwestern University, the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and University of Pittsburgh for their feedback; Deborah Thomas for amazing editorial guidance; and five anonymous reviewers for their time and effort, and for their insightful and kind comments that helped transform the original draft into its current form. Finally, I wish to thank the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and Beirut Forum for Critical Security Studies working group for their support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the American Anthropological Association
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Between 2006 and 2009, I attended various peacebuilding and antiwar events in Lebanon, from dialogue sessions and workshops to lectures and demonstrations. One refrain at these events was that war should be avoided because it was dehumanizing or, in a slightly different form, that it results in a loss of humanity. Alongside these gatherings, I conducted interviews and ethnographic fieldwork with former militia fighters from Lebanon's war (1975–1990). Together, these encounters led me to question notions of dehumanization in discourses of war and peace. Did war dehumanize? Did dehumanization lead to war? Did perpetrators lose their humanity through acts of killing? Did their actions stem from the dehumanization of the other? This article explores these questions and interrogates the notion of humanity. I argue that in allowing the notion of humanity to shape our politics, and in centering the loss of humanity in discourses of war and peace, both war and peace are invariably depoliticized. [war, dehumanization, combatants, humanity, Lebanon].
AB - Between 2006 and 2009, I attended various peacebuilding and antiwar events in Lebanon, from dialogue sessions and workshops to lectures and demonstrations. One refrain at these events was that war should be avoided because it was dehumanizing or, in a slightly different form, that it results in a loss of humanity. Alongside these gatherings, I conducted interviews and ethnographic fieldwork with former militia fighters from Lebanon's war (1975–1990). Together, these encounters led me to question notions of dehumanization in discourses of war and peace. Did war dehumanize? Did dehumanization lead to war? Did perpetrators lose their humanity through acts of killing? Did their actions stem from the dehumanization of the other? This article explores these questions and interrogates the notion of humanity. I argue that in allowing the notion of humanity to shape our politics, and in centering the loss of humanity in discourses of war and peace, both war and peace are invariably depoliticized. [war, dehumanization, combatants, humanity, Lebanon].
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U2 - 10.1111/aman.13271
DO - 10.1111/aman.13271
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070735212
VL - 121
SP - 583
EP - 594
JO - American Anthropologist
JF - American Anthropologist
SN - 1548-1433
IS - 3
ER -
