ABSTRACT
This contribution explores the implications of posthuman social theory for Perpetrator Studies. It lays out how posthuman social theory expands our understanding of the perpetration of violence by adding an appreciation of how the non-human makes significant difference in why, how, and when human beings become perpetrators. Specifically, I show how everyday (i.e., chairs, tables, etc.) and more technologically advanced objects (radios, rifles, etc.) can possess independent agency over human behavior in three important ways. First, I show how material objects contain scripts for violence that subconsciously hint at the perpetration of violence. Second, I argue that these objects circulate freely across borders to unintentionally spread particular patterns of perpetrating violence globally. Third, I demonstrate how non-human objects and their scripts also contain “affective” capacities that, more than suggesting or directing violence, can be seen as “forcing” human beings to perpetrate violence. Each of these claims is supported by evidence collected during interviews conducted with Syrian torturers. Taken together, I argue that Perpetrator Studies can gain from integrating these claims into an understanding of the material-semiotic “taskscape” of violence that provides a nuanced understanding of the ways in which violence is “more than human” in its coordinates.
