Download Four Stages of “Boundary Maintenance”

TWO-CATEGORY
SYSTEM OF HUMAN
RELATIONS
--DEHUMANIZATION
TWO-CATEGORY SYSTEM
OF HUMAN RELATIONS
Superior versus inferior:
There are, and have always
been, people who consider
themselves superior to others.
* PERCEPTION*
TWO-CATEGORY
SYSTEM
Examples:
Nazis
Jews
Hutus
Tutsis
Chinese
Tibetans
Whites
Blacks
Brainstorm other examples with a
partner. There are endless examples
of this, so really think this through and
come up with as many ideas as you
can. We must all agree not to be
offended by the ideas others may come
up with today. The idea is to identify
incidents of this type of thinking in
order to better understand it.
Dehumanization line – What
is it? Why is it significant?
Dehumanization is a psychological
process whereby “opponents” view
each other as less than human and
thus not deserving of moral
consideration.
-- Leads to intense hatred and
alienation.
Dehumanization
We will see the concept of dehumanization
throughout several of the novels we read
this year.
– The Things They Carried***
– Slaughterhouse-Five***
– Of Mice and Men
– To Kill a Mockingbird
– Night
Dehumanization
One group denies the humanity of another group, and
makes the victim group seem subhuman.
Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion
against murder.
.
Der Stürmer Nazi Newspaper:
“The Blood Flows; The Jew Grins”
Kangura Newspaper, Rwanda: “The
Solution for Tutsi Cockroaches”
Dehumanization
From a Nazi SS Propaganda Pamphlet:
Caption: Does the same soul dwell in these bodies?
Dehumanization
Hate propaganda in speeches, print and on hate radios
vilify the victim group.
Members of the victim group are described as animals,
vermin, and diseases. Hate radio, Radio Télévision Libre des
Mille Collines, during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, broadcast
anti-Tutsi messages like “kill the cockroaches” and “If this
disease is not treated immediately, it will destroy all the Hutu.”
Dehumanization invokes superiority of one group and
inferiority of the “other.”
Dehumanization justifies murder by calling it “ethnic cleansing,”
or “purification.” Such euphemisms hide the horror of mass
murder.
TPS
What are some ways we’ve seen
dehumanization in our summer reading
novels?
What could help combat dehumanization?
Dehumanization & Boundary
Maintenance
Sociological Terms
“Boundary Maintenance”
Boundary Maintenance: The ways in which
societies maintain distinctions between
themselves and others.
Many have suggested that, by studying the
ways in which a society attempts to define its
inherently ambiguous—and hence potentially
dangerous—peripheral areas, it is possible to
obtain a better understanding of what
constitutes its key cultural values.
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
I.
Prejudice:
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
I.
Prejudice: An adverse
judgment or opinion formed
without knowledge or
examination of the facts
(generalization).
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
II. Discrimination:
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
II. Discrimination: Taking action
based on prejudice; treatment
based on class, race, gender,
or other categorization
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
III. Segregation
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
III. Segregation: The policy or practice
of separating people of different
races, classes, or ethnic groups
Extreme examples include concentration
camps and apartheid
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
IV: Extraordinary “solutions”
Four Stages of “Boundary
Maintenance”
IV: Extraordinary “solutions”:
Genocide and “ethnic cleansing”
such as The Holocaust, Darfur,
Rwanda, and Bosnia