Open AccessBroken Lives? Reflections on the Anthropology of Exile and Repair
Author(s) -
David Lumsden
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
refuge
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1920-7336
pISSN - 0229-5113
DOI - 10.25071/1920-7336.22032
Subject(s) - presumption , universalism , the holocaust , sociology , morality , genocide , agency (philosophy) , embodied cognition , coping (psychology) , grief , criminology , political science , epistemology , law , psychology , philosophy , social science , psychiatry , politics
This article provides a rethinking ofthe concept of' exile and promotesits utility regarding both theexternally and the internally displaced.It does so from theperspective of MedicalAnthropology. A number of variablesaffecting and shaping the morality,performance, nature andoutcomes of exile are identified.Edward Said's views are discussed;but, must exiles always and foreverbe viewed or be felt as 'brokenlives'? The article argues against anaive presumption of 'universalism'to exile's embodied experience andresponse; instead, the specificities ofcultural meaning systems must betaken into account. Further, it arguesagainst analysts' common presumptionof pathology and 'posttraumaticstress disorder' amongexiles; instead, evidence for 'agency'and 'resilience' in exile populations'health and coping through time mustalso, and explicitly, be recognized.Finally, where lives are 'broken', thepotential of Truth Commissions and'forgiveness' to be practices ofcollective repair is noted. Examplesare drawn from Africa, Bosnia,Cambodia, Chile, China, Holocaustsurvivors, and Tibet.