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Against Humanity
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“Gunya is a woman in her late twenties. Soldiers of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted her when she was eleven years old and forcefully conscripted her into the rebel ranks. Gunya spent a l...
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02 February 2018

“Gunya is a woman in her late twenties. Soldiers of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted her when she was eleven years old and forcefully conscripted her into the rebel ranks. Gunya spent a little over a decade with the rebels before deserting. While there, she gave birth to a son with Onen, an LRA soldier. Though abducted, she expresses her continued support for the LRA and their tactics, admitting that she sometimes thinks of going back to the lum [bush] when life becomes hard as a civilian at home.”
This is not a book about crimes against humanity. Rather, it is an indictment of the very idea of humanity, the concept that lies at the heart of human rights and humanitarian missions.
Based on fieldwork in northern Uganda, anthropologist and medical doctor Sam Dubal brings readers into the inner circle of the Lord’s Resistance Army, an insurgent group accused of rape, forced conscription of children, and inhumane acts of violence. Dubal speaks with former LRA rebels as they find personal meaning in wartime violence, politics, and spirituality—experiences that observers often place outside of humanity’s boundaries. What emerges is an unorthodox and provocative question: What would it mean to be truly against humanity? And how does one honor life existing outside hegemonic notions of the good?
This is not a book about crimes against humanity. Rather, it is an indictment of the very idea of humanity, the concept that lies at the heart of human rights and humanitarian missions.
Based on fieldwork in northern Uganda, anthropologist and medical doctor Sam Dubal brings readers into the inner circle of the Lord’s Resistance Army, an insurgent group accused of rape, forced conscription of children, and inhumane acts of violence. Dubal speaks with former LRA rebels as they find personal meaning in wartime violence, politics, and spirituality—experiences that observers often place outside of humanity’s boundaries. What emerges is an unorthodox and provocative question: What would it mean to be truly against humanity? And how does one honor life existing outside hegemonic notions of the good?
Price: $29.95
Pages: 277
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
02 February 2018
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520296107
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
Sam Dubal is a medical anthropologist and a surgical resident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
List of Acronyms ix
List of Characters xi
Acknowledgments xv
1. Introduction: Against Humanity 1
2. How Violence Became Inhuman: The Making of Modern Moral Sensibilities 37
3. Gorilla Warfare: Life in and Beyond the Bush 83
4. Beyond Reason: Magic and Science in the LRA 115
I nterlude: Re-Turn and Dis-Integration 147
5. Rebel Kinship beyond Humanity: Love and Belonging in the War 160
6. Rebels and Charity Cases: Politics, Ethics, and the Concept of Humanity 178
7. Conclusion: Beyond Humanity, or, How Do We Heal? 210
List of Characters xi
Acknowledgments xv
1. Introduction: Against Humanity 1
2. How Violence Became Inhuman: The Making of Modern Moral Sensibilities 37
3. Gorilla Warfare: Life in and Beyond the Bush 83
4. Beyond Reason: Magic and Science in the LRA 115
I nterlude: Re-Turn and Dis-Integration 147
5. Rebel Kinship beyond Humanity: Love and Belonging in the War 160
6. Rebels and Charity Cases: Politics, Ethics, and the Concept of Humanity 178
7. Conclusion: Beyond Humanity, or, How Do We Heal? 210