Violence, Gender, and the Law
Spring 2015
ANTH UA-332
Professor Sally Engle Merry
sally.merry@nyu.edu
Office: 607 Department of Anthropology, 25 Waverly Place
Office hours 10-12 Wednesday in Vanderbilt Hall and by appointment
This course explores the nature of violence as a concept that incorporates both physical
harm and cultural meanings, using an anthropological perspective. The focus is on
violence in gendered and non-gendered relationships and the role the law plays in
controlling that violence. It examines law and violence in the context of non-state
societies, colonialism, international law and human rights, and transitional justice. It
focuses in particular on gender-based violence in a variety of forms, such as domestic
violence, rape, sex trafficking, genocide, and wartime violence and considers legal
strategies that attempt to deal with it. The course examines law as a system of ordering
relations and controlling conflict in contexts as diverse as small bands and global
institutions. It also theorizes law as a mode of maintaining state power and control over
subordinate populations.
This course is taught in a seminar style and students are expected to do the readings and
come to class prepared to discuss the material. Prerequisite is ANTH-UA 1.
There will be three short papers, 8 pages each, based on the course readings, and a
reaction paper of 2-3 pages. Each paper is 30% of the grade, reaction paper 5% and
class participation is 5%. For each class, three students will be assigned to raise critical
points and questions from the readings which will constitute the basis for the class
participation grade.
Required Books:
E.E. Evans-Pritchard. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and
Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford Univ. Press. Also available on kindle.
Bronislaw Malinowski. 1926. Crime and Custom in Savage Society. Littlefield Adams or
Transaction Publishers.
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Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness.
Sally Engle Merry. 2009. Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective. Wiley-Blackwell.
Andrea Smith. 2005. Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. South
End Press. The press is out of business. I think the book is available online.
January 27-29: What is Violence? (70 pages)
Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois eds.. 2004 Violence in War and Peace.
Blackwell Publishing. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-31. On NYU Classes.
Green, Linda. “Fear as a Way of Life.” 1994. Cultural Anthropology 9 (2): 227-56.
Primo Levy, “The Gray Zone.” From The Drowned and the Saved. 1988. Abridged,
chapter 8 in Violence in War and Peace. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois,
eds. Blackwells. Pp. 83-90 On NYU Classes.
Hannah Arendt, “From Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.”
Chapter 9 in Violence in War and Peace. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois,
eds. Blackwells. Pp.91 - 100. On NYU Classes.
February 3-5: What is Law? (113 pages) (No class Feb 5)
Karl Llewellyn and E.A. Hoebel, 1941. The Cheyenne Way. Chapters 1 and 2. On NYU
Classes
Max Gluckman. 1955. “The Peace in the Feud.” Past and Present 8 (1): 1-14. (available
through library, on JStor)
Robert Redfield. 1964. “Primitive Law.” University of Cincinnati Law Review 33 (1): 122. (NYU Classes)
Sally Engle Merry. 1988. “Legal Pluralism.” Law and Society Review 22: 869-896.
Online.
Reaction paper due February 10: Based on these readings, do you think law serves to
diminish violence? Does law itself exercise violence? How can you reconcile these two
positions? 2-3 pages.
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February 10-12: Law in Stateless Societies: Reciprocity and Crime (112 pages)
Bronislaw Malinowski. 1926. Crime and Custom in Savage Society. Littlefield Adams.
Part I – February 10
Part II –February 12
February 17-26: Law in Stateless Societies: Negotiating Violence and
Contemporary Conflict in South Sudan
E.E. Evans-Pritchard. 1940. The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and
political institutions of a Nilotic people. Oxford Univ. Press. Introductory and chapters I,
III, and IV. Chapter IV focuses in particular on law.
Feb 17-19: Pp. 1-51 (Introduction and Ch I) and pp. 94-138(Ch III)
Feb 24-26: Pp. 139-192 (Chapter IV) plus additional readings on the contemporary
situation in South Sudan, internet searches.
Recommended: rest of the book.
March 3: Theorizing Violence and the Law (69 pages)
Robert M. Cover. 1986. “Violence and the Word.” Yale Law Journal 95 (8): 1601-1609.
Online.
Daniel Goldstein. 2003. “In our own hands: Lynching, justice, and the law in Bolivia.”
American Ethnologist, Volume 30, Issue 1: 22-43. Online in Anthrosource.
First paper due March 3:
What are the mechanisms for achieving peace among the Nuer? How is the present
conflict in the South Sudan similar to and different from that described by EvansPritchard? Does Evans-Pritchard’s analysis provide insight into the current crisis in the
South Sudan? Consult internet news stories for situation in South Sudan. 8 pages.
March 5 - 10: Violence, Gender, and Imperialism (168)
No Class March 12
March 5
Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness 96 pp.
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Michael Taussig. 1984. “Culture of Terror-Face of Death: Roger Casement’s Putumayo
Report and the Explanation of Torture.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 26
(3): 467-97. Available online.
March 10
Franz Fanon. 1963. “Concerning Violence.” Pp. 35-107 in Wretched of the Earth. On
NYU Classes
March 24 - 26: Sexuality and Colonization (95 pages)
Merry, Sally E. 2000. Colonizing Hawaii” Chapter I, “Introduction” and Chapter 2, “The
Process of Legal Transformation,” pp. 3-62 and Chapter 8 “Sexuality, Marriage, and the
Management of the Body,” pp. 221-257. On NYU Classes.
March 31-April 2: Gender Violence, Social Movements, and Domestic Violence
(102 pages)
Merry, Sally Engle, Gender Violence, pp. 1-102.
April 7-9: Gender Violence in Context: Poverty, Racism, Migration, and Conflict.
(85 pages)
Merry, Sally Engle. Gender Violence, pp. 102-187.
Second paper due
What do you see as the primary causes of gender-based violence? Is all violence
gendered in some way? 8 pages.
April 14-16: Gender Violence, Human Rights, and Transitional Justice (90 pages)
Theidon, Kimberly. 2012. Intimate Enemies. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. Chapter 1
(pp. 1-23). Chapter 2 (pp. 24-53), Chapter 5 (pp. 103-142). I have a pdf of the whole
book, which I will email to you. Please read online instead of printing the whole book.
April 21-23: Sex Trafficking (119 pages)
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Guinn, David E. 2008. Defining the Problem of Trafficking: The Interplay of US Law,
Donor, and NGO Engagement and the Local Context in Latin America. Human
Rights Quarterly 30, no. 1 (February): 119-145. (Online)
Sharma, Nandita. 2005. “Anti-Trafficking Rhetoric and the Making of a Global
Apartheid.” NSWA Journal 17 (3): 88-111. (online on JStor)
Weitzer, Ronald. 2007. “The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking: Ideology and
Institutionalization of a Moral Crusade.” Politics & Society. 35: 447-475.
Denise Brennan. 2014. Life Interrupted. Introduction. Pp. 1-34. (on NYU Classes)
April 28 - 30: Gender Violence and Indigenous Peoples (80 pages)
Andrea Smith. 2005. Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. South
End Press. Selected chapters.
May 5-7: Gender Policing and Violence (61 pages plus paper)
David Valentine, 2003. “The Calculus of Pain: Violence, Anthropological Ethics, and the
Category Transgender.” Ethnos 68: (1): 27-48.
Razack, Sherene. 2000. Gendered Racial Violence and Spatialized Justice: the Murder of
Pamela George. Canadian Journal of Law and Society Vol. 15, No. 2. pp. 91-130
Third paper due May 13, 2 PM: Much of the literature on violence against women and
trafficking sees this violence in terms of interpersonal relationships such as between
intimate partners or traffickers and trafficked victims. Based on the readings in this
section, do you think this analysis is adequate? Using one or more examples, consider
whether these forms of violence have larger structural causes as well, and if so, what
they are. What difference does it make to think of these forms of violence as structural
rather than interpersonal? 8-10 pages
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