About this item
Highlights
- In To Save Heaven and Earth, Jennie E. Burnet considers people who risked their lives in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsi to try and save those targeted for killing.
- About the Author: Jennie E. Burnet is Director of the Institute for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University.
- 312 Pages
- Social Science, Anthropology
Description
About the Book
"This book explores the reasons some Rwandans risked their lives to rescue people targeted in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The volume presents stories of heroism and of the good done amidst the evil of a genocide that nearly annihilated Rwandan Tutsi and decimated those opposed to the slaughter"--Book Synopsis
In To Save Heaven and Earth, Jennie E. Burnet considers people who risked their lives in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsi to try and save those targeted for killing. Many genocide perpetrators were not motivated by political ideology, ethnic hatred, or prejudice. By shifting away from these classic typologies of genocide studies and focusing instead on hundreds of thousands of discrete acts that unfold over time, Burnet highlights the ways that complex decisions and behaviors emerge in the social, political, and economic processes that constitute a genocide.
To Save Heaven and Earth explores external factors, such as geography, local power dynamics, and genocide timelines, as well as the internal states of mind and motivations of those who effected rescues. Framed within the interdisciplinary scholarship of genocide studies and rooted in cultural anthropology methodologies, this book presents stories of heroism and of the good done amid the evil of a genocide that nearly annihilated Rwandan Tutsi and decimated the Hutu and Twa who were opposed to the slaughter.
Review Quotes
Much more than any other study of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, this volume examines the profoundly significant phenomenon of courage. Jennie E. Burnet's fine analysis goes beyond structural frameworks and provides an incremental, interdisciplinary, and theoretical approach to the subject.
-- "Choice"About the Author
Jennie E. Burnet is Director of the Institute for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University. She is the author of Genocide Lives in Us. Follow her on X @DrJennieBurnet.