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Author Ross, Fiona C

Title Bearing witness : women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa / Fiona C. Ross
Published London ; Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, 2003

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 206 pages)
Series Anthropology, culture, and society
Anthropology, culture, and society.
Contents Making the subject -- Testimonial practices -- The self in extremity -- Narrative threads -- Considerations of harm
Summary People who witness acts of terror and violence are often called after the event to bear witness to what they saw. In cases where this violence is inflicted by the state upon its own people, the process of bearing witness is both politically complex and traumatic for the individual involved. Independent trials and commissions have become important mechanisms through which the truth of past violence is sought in democratising states, but to date there has been little close attention to the processes and complexity of the work of such institutions. Fiona Ross's fascinating study of the process of bearing witness is the first book to examine the gendered dimensions of this topic from an anthropological and ethnographic viewpoint. Taking as a key example the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, Ross explores women's relationships to testimony, particularly the extent to which women avoid talking about or are silent about certain forms of violence and suffering. Offering a wealth of first-hand examples, Ross approaches a more subtle understanding of the achievements and the limitations of testimony as a measure of suffering and recovery generally. Is it, she asks, the panacea it is usually seen as? Or do conventional discourses on human rights, suffering and reconciliation oversimplify an altogether more complex and problematic process?
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 190-199) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
SUBJECT South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission fast
Südafrika <Staat> / Wahrheits- und Versöhnungkommission. swd
Subject Women -- Crimes against -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century
Women social reformers -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century
Social perception -- Sex differences -- South Africa
Oral communication -- Social aspects -- South Africa
Apartheid -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century
Human rights -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century
Women political activists -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Security.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
Women political activists
Apartheid
Human rights
Oral communication -- Social aspects
Social perception -- Sex differences
Women -- Crimes against
Women social reformers
Zeuge
Gewalt
Frau
Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Mensenrechten.
Getuigen.
Vrouwen.
South Africa
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2002008376
ISBN 9781849641500
1849641501
0585488703
9780585488707
0745318924
9780745318929
9781783715268
178371526X