Graduation Year
2020
Date of Submission
5-2020
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
History
Reader 1
Heather Ferguson
Reader 2
Jon Shields
Rights Information
© 2020 Laleh Ahmad
Abstract
This thesis seeks to understand motivations for collective violence beyond the traditional explanations of ethnic hatred or racism. Often, historical scholarship focuses on ethnic hatred and racism, and elaborates on the processes by which those notions and hatreds came to be. Scholarship in the political science realm often gets past the hatred hypothesis but does not explore historical myths and legacy formation as they contribute to past and current violence. This thesis employs a case study approach to understand collective violence that is global and takes multiple cultures and religions into account. The case studies were chosen thematically, and each case study had personal relevance, and elucidated concerns of ethical remembrance and memorialization particularly well. It employs the power/threat and political elite framework as the primary motivator of collective violence and seeks to explore the historical myths that led to past violence and how the legacies of those events are causing current conflict.
Recommended Citation
Ahmad, Laleh, "Killing Within Communities: What Causes Collective Violence, How We Remember It, and Why It Matters" (2020). CMC Senior Theses. 2463.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2463
Included in
African History Commons, Asian History Commons, European History Commons, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons
