Ethnogenesis and the War in Rwanda. The Policies of Otherness
Author:
Paulon M.
Abstract:
Anthropological analysis has long rested on the premise that cultural borders were somehow linear, based on bounds between people who essentially shared a common culture, with particular differences distinguishing each cohort from all others. Accordingly, identity bounds would possibly find direct representation in geopolitical borders.
Mainstream public discourse absorbed such a perspective, reproducing the simplistic view that geographical borders and social isolation of aggregates were the critical factors in defining cultural diversity and similarity between peoples. Social anthropologists, for their part, obliquely supported such a vision by adopting a highly vague concept of “society.”
The work of Fredrik Barth, among others, marked the transition to a new era of ethnographic studies, parting with anthropological notions of cultures as isolated entities and ethnicity as a primordialist bond. From then on, analysis of categorical ethnic distinctions did not depend anymore on the absence of mobility, contact, or interaction, but rather on the ongoing negotiations between communities as a key factor structuring identity bounds. African post-colonial studies provided the most valuable materials for the consideration of the social ontology of ethnicity, which is here analyzed with a particular focus on Rwanda. Such analytical tools, here integrated with a post-structuralist discourse theory, are still crucial to prevent essentialism, ethnicism, racism, and culturalism as means of social discrimination in the context of the ethno-states.
Keywords:
culturalism, epistemology, ethnicity, Fredrik Barth, social anthropology, Rwanda, race
DOI:
10.31132/2412-5717-2025-73-4-9-27
References:
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For citation:
Paulon M. (2025). Ethnogenesis and the War in Rwanda. The Policies of Otherness. Journal of the Institute for African Studies. Vol. 11. № 4. Pp. 9–27. https://doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2025-73-4-9-27
Для цитирования:
Паулон М. Этногенез и война в Руанде. Политика инаковости. Ученые записки Института Африки РАН. 2025. Т. 11. № 4. С. 9–27. https://doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2025-73-4-9-27
