masking terror

8/12/2019 Masking Terror

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Masking Terror: How Women Contain Violence in Southern Sri Lanka by Alex Argenti-Pillen;Scarred Minds: The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils by Daya Somasunderam;The Ocean of Stories: Children's Imagination, Creativity, and Reconciliation in Eastern SriLanka by Patricia LawrenceReview by: Malathi De AlwisMedical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Mar., 2004), pp. 104-107Published by: Wileyon behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3655444.

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REVIEW ESSAY

Masking Terror: How Women Contain Violence in Southern Sri Lanka. AlexArgenti-Pillen.Philadelphia:niversityfPennsylvaniaress, 003.xv + 235pp.Scarred Minds: The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils. Daya Soma-sunderam. ewDelhi:Sage,1998.353pp.The Ocean of Stories: Children's Imagination, Creativity, and Reconciliation in East-ern Sri Lanka.PatriciaLawrence.Colombo, ri Lanka: nternationalentreor EthnicStudies, 003.94pp.MALATHIDE ALWISSenior ResearchFellowInternationalCentre or EthnicStudies,Colombo

he resilience of individuals and communities n the face of extraordinaryviolence, be it rape,torture,or ethnocide, s a phenomenon hathas contin-ued to perplexas well as give us hope.Thethreetexts I brieflydiscuss hereseek in differentways to explore the fraughtprocessesof such psychic sufferingandhealing.InMaskingTerror,Alex Argenti-Pillenargues hatSinhalawomenin a ruralslum (anambiguous erm eft unexplained) n southernSriLankawho haveexpe-riencedextraordinaryiolence duringa Sinhalayouthuprising n 1988-90, seek toreconstruct heir communicativeworlds and interrupt he cycle of violencethroughavarietyof traditional nd culture-specific arrative tyles (p.xii) em-bedded n thebelief of thewild (yakku).Argenti-Pillenprovides a sensitive analysis of a varietyof Sinhalaexpres-sions usedin everydaydiscourse hatseekthrougheuphemismsandother ormsofveiled speech to converse about terrorand violence in a nonprovocativeway.Drawing a parallelbetween women's responsesto perpetrators f domestic vio-lence, who continue to live in theirhouseholds,andperpetrators f nondomesticviolence (thosewho accused,betrayed, hreatened, r killed family membersdur-ing theuprising),who continueto live in theircommunities,she also suggeststhatverbal strategiesof dissociation(differentiatingbetween ordinaryandyaka-likepeople) avertedamorewidespreadoutbreak f violence, as it was only thepunish-mentand ndictment f theperpetratorhatwassought,not thatof hisentire amily.These strategies of acoustic cleansing (p. 197) are used to substantiateArgenti-Pillen'sbroaderand supposedlyanti-Foucauldian osition thatthere arelocal discourses on violence thatreference local social realities ratherthan theMedicalAnthropologyuarterly8(1):104-107.Copyright 2004,AmericanAnthropologicalssociation.

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REVIEWESSAY

institutionalized iscoursesof thenationalelite (pp. 13-14). Theconceptualpur-chase of such a rigid dichotomizationand the valorizationof the local as small-scale,well-isolatedsocial contexts p. 197) are unclear o me. Previousanthropo-logical researchhas demonstratedhatlocal social realitiesplay a crucial role inhow nationalevents areplayedoutwithin local communitiesandhow inextricablylinked arethe two (forexample,PradeepJeganathan, Allthe Lord'sMen?Ethnic-ity andInequalityn theSpaceof a Riot, nMichael Roberts ed.),SriLanka.Col-lective IdentitiesRevisited,Vol. 2, Colombo:MargaInstitute,1998). Indeed,caneven a cursoryunderstanding f nationalism gnore the complex articulationofideological state apparatuses uch as the school, media, and family? What fuelsstatements howeversatirical)suchas the one madeby Argenti-Pillen's nformantthat toendthe war we mustreduce heproductionof Tamilpeople (p.66)? Simi-larly,could verbaldissociationsoperateas seamlesslywithin a nonhomogeneousneighborhood here heperpetratorouldbe of a different thnicityrom he victim?Argenti-Pillen'smostnoteworthycontributionies in herefforts to providealocated andcontingentreadingof fearfulness mongSinhalawomen.While thishas enabledher to de-link the Sinhalabelief in yakkufrom its more commonlyrelegatedrole as anexotic culturalmanifestation f ecstaticreligion(thedisciplineof anthropologybeing particularly ulpablehere),herunquestioning aith in tra-dition has blinkeredher abilityto see how women can be constrainedanddisci-plined througha systemof beliefs andrituals hatseeks to constitute hem asperen-nially vulnerable to contamination.The containment of violence seems to beproducedat a greatcost-to women.Additionally, heperpetratoreems to be leftout of thisanalyticalequation.Even moresurprisings Argenti-Pillen' censureof women who refuse to beinterpellatedas fearful and express their skepticism regarding he efficacy ofcleansing rituals. She not only faults trauma-counselingNGOs for encouragingsuch Western nd modernizing aradigmsof thoughtandbehavior,but esti-mates these fearless women's contribution o the cycle of violence tobe sub-stantial n the long term p. 194). This is a troublingargument, ircumscribedbyArgenti-Pillen'sinabilityto provide a genealogy of fearfulness nd fearless-ness. An engagementwith theextensiveliterature nd vibrantdebateson notionsof femininityandmasculinity n SriLankawould have made clear thatnotonly arethere normativeandanti-normative iscoursesandpracticesof genderedembodi-ment-for example,theinterpellatoryategoriesof chandiya thug)orlajja-bhaya(respectability)-that are notembedded n a belief in yakku-but thatthecategoryof the fearless womanis not a new phenomenonarisen out of women's recent re-sponsesto violence, as Argenti-Pillenseeks to suggestand even makepredictionsbased on sucha false assumption.Similarly,why introduce he tiredoppositionsof Westernversusnon-Western,modernityversustradition o understand societythathas beencolonized for overfourcenturies?Although t is irrefutable hattherehas been a recentboom in men-talhealthNGOs,psychiatryhasbeenpracticedon the island forat leasthalf a cen-tury.Its importancen Sri Lankan ife is particularly xemplifiedthroughan inci-dent described n ScarredMinds:in 1988, a groupof 487 Tamils who had beentorturedwhile in SriLankanarmycustodytook outa newspaperadvertisement e-questingmedicalhelp(p.264).

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Scarred Minds, by Daya Somasunderam, s a psychiatricanalysis of re-sponsesto chronicviolence amongTamilcivilians in northernSri Lanka writtenfrom the inside of the violence, as it were (VeenaDas in Foreword,p. 15).Both awitness to and survivorof violence, Somasunderam otonly taughtpsychiatryandtreatedpatients hroughout he 20-yearcivil warin the northbut also cofounded ahumanrightsdocumentationgroupthatworks/edunder threatof death(anothercofounderwas murderedby Tamilmilitants, n 1989). Somasunderam's ompre-hensive theoreticalandclinical discussion of the psychologicalcauses and effectsof continuousviolence is thusframedby apowerfulcritiqueof violence andan im-passioned advocacyof nonviolence as the most effective way of securingpoliticaljustice. Workingwith mental illness in conditionsof chronicviolence, Somasun-deramnotes,makesus questionourown notions of normality :t is the so-called'normal' ndividuals[thosewho incite othersto violence by mobilizingnotions ofpatriotismandnationalism]who maybe more in need of treatment hanthose whocome to be labeledas 'insane' (p.20).It is unfortunate hat Argenti-Pillen'scritiqueof mental health discoursesdoes not engage Somasunderam'swork. Although Somasunderamwould be inagreementwith Argenti-Pillen hat narrowmedicalmodels are inadequate o ex-pressthe full extent of people's mentalagony,he believes in mobilizing post-trau-maticstressdisorderdiagnosesas an nternationally ecognizedmeansto drawat-tentionto theplightof civiliansand in thelong termto createsocial awarenessandmobilise support oraffectedpopulations p. 169).Somasunderam rgues hathisdescriptivenarrativesof psychologicalreactions .. transcribed n the languageof the mindandbody providewhatconventionalaccountsof warfail to do-a tes-timonyto suffering p. 169).However, Somasunderam'sdeep andpolitically located commitment o hiscommunityextends beyond merely documentingsufferingto trying to explainhow acommunity'svery scarringby violenceperpetuateshisviciouscycle. Peacecan be broughtaboutonly throughdeveloping an awarenessof the unconsciouspsychic forceswithinus andchangingtheirdirectionby anact of will (p. 331).His call for a descent nto the ordinary Veena Das in Foreword,p. 17) and therecreationof a nonviolent sociality is particularlypoignant: Too much impor-tance has been given to politics.... Let us turn ourminds to otherthings in ourlives-work, family,art,drama .. let us laughandcryover life's smallproblemsandgo to sleepwithoutanyfear pp.311-312). This is themessagefrom the localto the global, observes Veena Das, in a context where a Tamil diasporasendsmoney for womenand children o be recruited o theTamilcause in Jaffnawhiletheirown childrenarehappilygoing to school (p. 17).It is childrenand theirstorytelling, in a regionthathas witnessed the massa-cre of entirevillages, where politicalsilencinghadbecome endemic (p. 3), thatareforegroundedn The Oceanof Storiesby PatriciaLawrence.This slim volumeis an ethnographic eflection on the ButterflyPeace Garden n Batticaloa, n east-ernSriLanka,which was foundedsevenyearsago to providea spacewhereTamiland Muslim children who have endureddevastating oss and psychic injurycanlearnto play and heal together.Lawrence,a culturalanthropologistwho did herdissertation esearch nthisregionand hashad a long relationshipwith thegarden,skillfully evokes the whimsical energy as well as transformativepower of thisexceptional space where the effects of war made by adults are unmade with

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gentleness, patience, imaginationand laughter (p. 14). Simultaneouswith suchhealing s the slow andpainfulnarrowingof achasmof ethnichatredandsuspicionbetweenTamil and Muslim childrenand thesimilarlyethnically/religiouslydiffer-entiatedanimatorswho workwith them.What makes the ButterflyPeace Gardenboth so extraordinary nd uniqueseems to be its constant nterweavingof a varietyof methodologiesand ritualsofhealing. Within a framework indebted to Chong philosophy [an undergroundmovementpopular n Canada n the 1960s] basedon the Taoist maxim- doingthe ordinary n a marvelousway, doing the marvelousin an ordinaryway (p.23)-the garden's founder,Paul Hogan, and his codirector,Father Paul Satku-nanayagam,have incorporatedTamil folk drama,medicinecircles from First Na-tion's peoples in Canada,Buddhistwalking meditation,Jungianpsychoanalysis,etc., to create atransforming pacethat is always in transition .. notreally any-whereat all (p. 30). It is the veryculturalnonrecognizability f this spacethatisenabling,observesLawrence,because theusual rules do notapplythere .. it is aplaceso free andopeneven a grownup mightbe able to relax pp.30-31).This statement s aninteresting ounterpointo Argenti-Pillen'sassertion hattraditional, ulturallyrecognizable systems of healing are the most effective.What I have soughtto suggest here is thatwe should not underestimate heresil-ience andresolve of wounded ndividualsandsocieties to seek solace in whateverritualsorsystemsof healingtheymayencounter-be theyfamiliarorunfamiliar-andtransform hem in theprocess.

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masking terror

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