CULTURECIDE (© Stuart D Stein. To be published in Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies, edited by Ellis Cashmore, Routledge, 2003)

   Culturecide, referred to also as cultural genocide or deculturation, signifies processes that have usually been purposely introduced that result in the decline or demise of a culture, without necessarily resulting in the physical destruction of its bearers. These same processes have also been termed ethnocide, although some authorities insist that that concept should only be applied when there is also a deliberate attempt at the physical liquidation of the cultural bearers, as well as cultural eradication.

   There is also a close affinity with the concept of genocide, which, under the terms of the Genocide Convention 1948  refers to specified acts that are undertaken with the objective of destroying, in whole or in part, members of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such. During the drafting of that convention there was some debate on whether or not “cultural genocide” should be incorporated in it. Raphäel Lemkin, the originator of the concept genocide, was one of the three experts to which the draft convention drawn up by the Division of Human Rights of the United Nations was referred to for comment.  He argued that a group could not continue to exist, “unless it preserves its spirit and moral unity,” and that the destruction of cultures was “as disastrous for civilization as was the physical destruction of nations.” The general consensus appears to have been, however, that the inclusion of cultural destruction in the convention would divert attention away from its main purpose, namely, the prevention of the physical destruction of groups, and would also make securing agreement more difficult, if not impossible.

   This, however, has not prevented various authorities from continuing this argument, noting that the same objective, the eradiation of a group of people differentiated by some distinct traits, such as ethnicity, race, religion, language, nationality, or culture, can be achieved just as effectively in the mid- to long-term, by gradual processes, as it might be by there immediate physical liquidation. Consequently, the boundaries between culturecide, ethnocide, and genocide remain conceptually porous. This is frequently manifested in the experiences of the same group being described by the employment of the terms culturecide, ethnocide, or genocide, by different authorities.

   Culturecide is most often used to describe the experiences of many indigenous peoples. As Arens notes, deculturation, “can involve some or all of the following: political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, economic stability personal security, liberty, health and dignity.” Diverse authorities have noted the impact of policies implemented by colonising powers on native populations. Churchill, commenting on the long history of policies pursued in the United States and Canada noted that it was “readily observable that both nations consistently engaged in what has been openly termed as ‘assimilationist policies’ directed at indigenous populations within their borders.  Aspects of these policies have and in many instances still include the legal suppression of indigenous religions and languages, the unilateral supplanting of indigenous governmental forms, the compulsory ‘education’ of indigenous youth (often entailing their forced transfer to ‘boarding schools’) in accordance with the cultural and religious mores antithetical to their own.  …Such policies make perfect sense when it is understood that the stated objective of forced assimilation is to bring about the complete dissolution of the targeted groups as such, causing their disappearance (‘death’) as individual members are absorbed into ‘mainstream society,’ they are but clinical descriptions of the process of cultural genocide.” The same argument has been laid in relation to the experiences of many other indigenous peoples.

Reading

“East Timor: A Case of Cultural Genocide,” by J Dunn, (in G J Andreopoulos (ed.) Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994)

Genocide in Paraguay, by R Arens (ed.) (Temple University Press, 1976)

“Genocide: Toward a Functional Definition,” by Ward Churchill, (in D O Friedrichs (ed.) State Crime. Volume I.  Defining, Delineating and Explaining State Crime. Ashgate, 1998)

Tears of Blood: A Cry for Tibet, by Mary Craig, Harper Collins, 1992