Killing Others A Natural History of Ethnic Violence - Matthew Lange

254 Pages·2020·4.08 MB·English

KILLING OTHERS

KILLING
OTHERS

A Natural History of Ethnic Violence

Matthew Lange

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2017 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from
the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,
512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2017 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2017

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lange, Matthew, author.
Title: Killing others : a natural history of ethnic violence / Matthew Lange.
Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016030015 (print) | LCCN 2016031136 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781501704871 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501704888
(pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501707766 (Reflowable formats) |
ISBN 9781501707773 (PDF ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Ethnic conflict. | Ethnic conflict—History.
Classification: LCC HM1121 .L37 2017 (print) | LCC HM1121 (ebook) |

DDC 305.8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030015

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and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such
materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are
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Cover art: Untitled collage (2009) by Mwilambwe Bondo Vitshois, drawing and
acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cm. Courtesy of the artist, represented by Kin
ArtStudio, Kinshasa, DRCongo.

To Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, Isaac McGhie, and all victims
of ethnic violence

vii

Contents

List of Illustrations
ix
Acknowledgments
xi

Introduction: Killing Others
1

1. The Nature and Nurture of Ethnic Violence
16

2. Modernity and Ethnic Violence
37

3. Teaching Peace or Violence?
61

4. The Origins of Ethnic Consciousness
82

5. The Origins of Ethnic Pluralism
101

6. Emotional Prejudice and Ethnic Obligations:
Motives of Ethnic Violence
122

7. States and Ethnic Violence: Containing Violence
or Instigating Unrest?
143

8. From Worst to First: Declining Ethnic Violence in
Early Modernizers
156

9. Modernity and Ethnic Violence in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America
169

10. The Future of Ethnic Violence
195

References
213
Index
233

ix

Illustrations

i.1. The lynchings of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson,
and Isaac McGhie
2

i.2. The impact of modernity on ethnic violence
11

2.1. Types of warfare by decade, 1816–1999
50

2.2. Number of ethnic wars per decade, 1816–1999
50

2.3. Episodes of ethnic violence by decade, 1950–2009
51

2.4. Deaths per 100,000 people caused by ethnic
violence, 1950–2009
52

2.5. The frontispiece of Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651)
56

3.1. Klan membership by class
67

3.2. Education of KKK members and the
general public in Denver by age, 1920s
69

3.3. Teaching anti-Semitism in German schools
75

4.1. Thomas Moore before and after residential school
96

8.1. Ethnic civil wars by region and type per decade
157

10.1. Democracy by region, 1960–2012
203

10.2. World Bank governance indicators by region, 2010
204

10.3. Per capita GDP (constant 2005 US$)
by region, 1970–2012
206