ABSTRACT
This final chapter turns to case studies of mass violence and social conflicts in Central America, Mexico, and South America to understand some of their causes and explore their current and future legacies, cultural or otherwise. The first section explores why studies of mass violence and conflicts have not occupied a prominent place in cultural anthropology. It then focuses on the relationship between mass violence, death, and memory, underscoring the latter’s powerful role-remembering or, in the cases of others, forgetting-through which individuals interpret and make sense of past traumatic events, and why such memories are important. The subsequent sections center on the Central American civil wars of the 1980s (Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala); the 1971 coup against Chilean president Salvador Allende led by General Pinochet; Argentina’s dirty war; the widespread violence in Colombia; the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico; and Peru’s Shining Path insurgency. These sections are followed by a critical examination of the acrimonious controversy surrounding the publication of Rigoberta Menchú’s quasi-autobiography on events during the Guatemalan civil war. The last part of this chapter draws attention to ways that Central American refugees-especially Guatemalan Mayas-are striving to rebuild their lives and sustain their culture in the United States.
