"Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"
A Special Issue of Social Alternatives (Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, 2006)
Australian Business Number, ABN: 96841 208 241, ISSN: 0155-0306


 

Editor of Social Alternatives: Ralph Summy

 

 


Guest Editor for the Special Issue on History and Humiliation: Bertram Wyatt-Brown

Please obtain a copy by making a cheque to Social Alternatives for $20 ($10 for the journal and the extra $10 to cover postage) and sending it to Ralph Summy, Co-Editor Social Alternatives, Adjunct Professor, Australian Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia 4072.

From the Editor's Desk by Ralph Summy
As the member of the Editorial Collective assigned the responsibility of overseeing the editing of the themed articles, it has been a pleasure and instructive experience to work with our two guest editors, Bertram Wyatt-Brown and Evelin Gerda Lindner. They are both experts in the rapidly growing field of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HDHS). Indeed, Lindner is the founder and driving force behind the establishment of a very dynamic body of that name, comprising researchers and practitioners dedicated to the promotion of ‘universal values such as humility, mutual respect, caring and compassion, and a sense of shared planetary rights and responsibilities.’ The absence of these values occurs when people fail to recognise, respect and honour the differences in others. Unless a global community is developed where people come to enjoy the richness of diversity and realise the mutuality of their inherent or basic needs (for example, survival, well-being, identity, balance of freedom to and freedom from, environmental sustainability, etc), the prospects remain bleak for a violence-reduced future.
However, that is not the fate I read into the statements of HDHS. What Lindner calls the ‘cycles of humiliation’ can be arrested, and the spirals of violence that humiliation generates set on a downward path. Fortunately, the path of no return has yet to be reached.
And so on that optimistic note, while the global history of humiliation that unfolds in the following pages makes for depressing reading in one sense, in another it provides the framework for understanding how to transform such events into peaceful outcomes. Progress can be made in preventing, managing or resolving so-called intractable conflicts if the roots of the problem are unearthed. Undermining the dignity of a person or group by an act of humiliation, or in some other way depriving a party of a basic need is more apt to be avoided or abandoned once the process is grasped. Any justification for pursuing the conflict might then be totally discredited.
In addition to the collection of themed articles, I encourage readers to check out the extensive website of HDHS, http://www.humiliationstudies.org/.
Ralph Summy

Introduction to the Special Issue, by Bertram Wyatt-Brown
Bertram Wyatt-Brown has kindly taken upon him the task of developing a Special Issue on 'History and Humiliation' of the journal Social Alternatives. Bertram Wyatt-Brown has an extensive background in Southern history and is very au fait with the South's humiliation, both before and after the Civil War. His mentor C. Van Woodward is one of the great historians of our time.


 

Contents
(the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format)

Wyatt-Brown, Bertram (2006)
Guest Editor's Introduction to the Special Issue 'History and Humiliation' of Social Alternatives
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 3-4, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Summy, Ralph (2006)
From the Editor's Desk
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, p. 5, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Part One: The European Experience

Lindner, Evelin G. (2006)
Humiliation and Reactions to Hitler's Seductiveness in Post-War Germany: Personal Reflections
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 6-11, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
This article first addresses the various forms of humiliation. The discussion then offers the intricate web of feelings among the German population towards Adolph Hitler. It is argued that the 'broad masses' occupied a distinctly subordinate position in Germany 's social hierarchy before and after World War I. They rallied to Hitler's cause because he provided them with a sense of importance. Only after World War II did many painfully recognise how he had abused their loyalty. On the other hand, the aristocracy had initially expected Hitler to be their puppet. Instead, he rendered them powerless and humiliated them with his ability to manipulate the masses into supporting him as he achieved a series of early political and military victories. After World War II, the defeat - the Zusammenbruch - prompted a deep sense of mortification among the common people as well as the elite. When Germany lost World War I in 1918, feelings of humiliation fed public resentment, instability and ultimately national 'retaliation' in the form of a new war. Subsequent to 1945, in contrast, abasement became more of an inner experience. Every Hitler follower had reason to feel humiliated by his or her misplaced devotion to the Führer - the "little people" for allowing the destructive dictator, Adolf Hitler, to capture their hearts; the aristocracy for letting it happen. My interviews with German survivors of his regime reveal that it is perhaps due to feeling a fair amount of self-inflicted humiliation that private reactions to Hitler's fatal seduction range from denial, ambivalence and uncertainty to clear-sighted self-criticism, and that the national reaction, instead of engendering a desire for national retaliation, resulted in a willingness to accept the ashes of shame.

Wyatt-Brown, Anne (2006)
A Woman in Berlin: An Endless Cycle of Female Humiliation, Berlin 1945
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 12-16, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
William Ian Miller (1993) and Vladimir Bukovsky (2005) describe how humiliation can affect all parties in an interaction. Their analysis illuminates the problems facing the anonymous author of A Woman in Berlin . All three parties, the Russian soldiers, the diarist, and her fiancé reacted differently to humiliating circumstances. Although the diarist could not overcome all of her symptoms caused by the abuse, using her keen analytical mind saved her from the temptation of perpetuating the cycle of violence and humiliation so well described by Evelin Lindner (2002) The diarist's experiences shed light on the fate and trauma of countless thousands of women caught in the throes of chaos and war.

Stokes, Paul A. (2006)
‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, 1968-2005: A Case of Mutual Humiliation
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 17-21, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
Whereas Southern Ireland absorbed the succession of invaders over the centuries so that a mixed culture was created, that pattern did not occur in the North. There the Scottish and English Protestant planters of the seventeenth century, having seized the best lands, developed their own identity as separate from the rest of the country which remained predominantly Roman Catholic. The dominant group visited shameful and humiliating experiences upon their “Papist” countrymen. Even as late as 1994 officials of the British government snubbed the IRA cease-fire of that year and continually increased their demands for decommissioning of the IRA. That was interpreted as deeply humiliating. The members of the Republican movement grumbled that this exhibition of disdain was yet another example of the 'Brits rubbing our noses in it again.’ The result was a cycle of activities designed to degrade the other party, which then immediately resulted in designs for revenge. This patterning helps to explain the intractability of the two cultural and religious forces in Northern Ireland.

Part Two: The American Experience

Wyatt-Brown, Bertram (2006)
Honor, Irony, and Humiliation in the Era of American Civil War
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 22-27, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
The appearance of humiliation and its effects are seldom applied to the American experience. Apart from the defeat in Vietnam - lately forgotten - untrammeled success in winning wars, accumulating wealth, and providing domestic security have led to a dangerous arrogance and sense of divine privilege. Only the American South had suffered the humiliation of military defeat, occupation, and the ruination of its economic vitality - the emancipation of its African-American labor force, the desolation of its infrastructure, and the impoverishment of most whites. The result was deep resentment of Yankee victory and furious and often lethal determination to humiliate the underclass of blacks. With the North wearied of Southern strife, the whites demolished the Republican, biracial state governments and created a one-party, racially segregated, and oppressive regional society. Ironically, the American situation is sadly analogous to the coalition occupation of Iraq and the consequent violence and atrocities - on all aides - that has led to near anarchy in that country.

Brundage, W. Fitzhugh (2006)
The Ultimate Shame: Lynch-Law in the Post-Civil War American South
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 28-32, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
During the century after the Civil War lynch mobs in the American South executed probably between 4000 and 5000 victims.  Lynching gripped the imaginations of black and white Americans precisely because it was such an extraordinarily savage and effective mode of humiliation directed especially against African Americans.  Whites' racial antipathy, patriarchal prerogative, economic anxieties, and religiously inspired sense of retributive justice gave license to public violence of almost unlimited ferocity against blacks.  This article describes the rituals of humiliation associated with lynching, which ranged from the torture and mutilation of victims to the intimidation of the larger black community, as well as explanations for phenomenon.  No precise tabulation of the impact of lynching on the American South and the United States is possible.  But it unquestionably has been profound and extends from attitudes about capital punishment to faith in American justice and democracy.

Hudnall, Amy C. (2006)
Humiliation and Domination under American Eyes: German POWs in the continental United States, 1942-1945
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 33-39, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
During World War II, the United States transported over 400,000 captured soldiers onto American soil. This created a unique set of challenges for the U.S. government, one that by all rights they met admirably. The quality of the POW-camp system was just one of the many actions that established the United States in the post-war world as leaders in human rights. Thus it is logical to review this system as a means of considering further positive change in POW-camp policies, particularly in terms of reducing events that can trigger long-term psychological trauma. The data was gathered from various correspondence, court trials, and other official documents along with numerous translated and transcribed, post-internment depositions conducted by the German Legal Division. Based on an examination of the problems with in the camps and the impact on the captors, four areas for improvement emerged: (1) camp layout, (2) policies on fraternization, (3) methods of interrogation, and (4) requirements on personnel training and standards.

Part Three: Experience of Developing Nations

Gomes de Matos, Francisco (2006)
Humiliation and Its Brazilian History as a Domain of Sociolinguistic Study
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 40-43, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
This article describes how Humiliation can be dealt with from a sociolinguistic perspective, the study of relations between Language and Society. The author focuses on humiliating acts in two institutionalized types of Communication in Brazil - religious discourse and bureaucratic / administrative discourse - and draws on his experience as an applied sociolinguist to illustrate how communicative humiliation can be revealing of ageism, classism, ethnocentrism, and sexism.

Danino, Michel (2006)
Humiliation in India's Historical Consciousness
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 44-49, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
India is a civilization more than a nation, founded on an integrative, organic Hindu identity. In recent centuries, this identity has undergone physical as well as psychological humiliation from various sides, but without any compensating healing process. Historical distortions persist, deeply imbedded in Indian as well as Western textbooks, but primarily in minds that continue to be influenced by colonial stereotypes. As a result, Hindu identity is suppressed or denied by conquering ideologies, and its harmonizing contribution to the building of a new India remains largely untapped.

Gasanabo, Jean-Damascène (2006)
The Rwanda Akazi (Forced Labour) System, History, and Humiliation
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 50-55, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
Even before Belgian control of Rwanda , social inequalities had persisted. The ranks of society were based on the proprietorship of cows. Ownership could be achieved either by allegiance to a patron who was willing to protect the client and confer the property in exchange for services rendered (ubuhake) or by receiving one or more cows as a mark of friendship. With the introduction of Akazi (forced labour) by the Belgian authorities, people got confused between ubuhake and akazi. The Hutu majority was forced to submit to the humiliation of akazi under the Tutsis. The Belgians favoured the latter with administrative posts, supervision of the labour force, and other marks of authority because they owned most of the cattle and were given preferential access to advanced education. Resenting their lowlier position, Hutus began an insurgency in 1959. Tutsis were killed or else forced into exile in neighbouring countries. Genocide followed and created the most tragic catastrophe of death, misery, and humiliation that the Hutus could inflict on the Tutsis.

Fontan, Victoria C Fontan (2006)
Hubris, History, and Humiliation: Quest for Utopia in Post-Saddam Iraq
In Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 56-61, 2006 (the full text is available by obtaining a copy of the Special Issue of Social Alternatives from Ralph Summy, or here in pdf format).

Abstract:
This article will attempt to understand how the current political situation of post-Saddam Iraq is being influenced by the historical perceptions of humiliation and conflict not only between the occupiers and the occupied, but also the US and al-Qa'ida in a 'War on Terror' context. History and humiliation will be used to conceptualise the conflict escalation in post-Saddam Iraq.


 

Background

Editor Ralph Summy kindly wrote (in July 2005):
I imagine, to assemble a collection of 6-7 articles, plus introduction, on the theme of 'History and Humiliation.' Each article would be in the range of 2,000-3,000 words. We also like graphics, poetry and blow-ups to break up the print and fill in the empty spaces. Since we're a refereed journal, we'd expect the guest editor to approach at least two referees per article. The deadline to make the first issue of next year would mean the guest editor's work would have to be submitted to the journal's editorial collective before Christmas of this year.

Earlier, Ralph Summy shared with us refelctions on the humiliation in connection with Hitler and Mussolini:
It wasn't that NOBODY cared; many people (e.g., Lord Cecil and the League of Nations Union) pointed out that Hitler's plan and the humiliation behind it were clearly set out in Mein Kampf and elsewhere. The problem was the allied policymakers, many of whom were themselves the initial problem, having brought about Germany's humiliation at Versailles and in their subsequent actions. The Nazis could mine the deeply-felt humiliation of the proud German people. Mussolini is another example of a tyrant whose extreme nationalism was riddled with humiliation. He rallied the support of his nation to militarise and invade Abyssinia on the basis of betrayal and humiliation. This could be traced to the broken promises of Britain and France as they failed to honour their pledges of the 1915 London Treaty to divide up North Africa in a way also favouring Italy. It was on the basis of these promises that Italy came into the war against Germany. When the Treaty was ignored at Versailles and the former North African colonies of Germany divided so as to benefit mainly France and Britain, the Italians felt cheated and humiliated and became fair game for Mussolini's aggressive actions. I guess the examples from which the West never seems to learn are endless, despite the fact that not humiliating your opponent is a basic principle of conflict resolution.

Ralph added in another email (24th July 2005):
Your research [on humiliation] is very much needed in today's violence-prone world where a failure to empathise with THE OTHER, looking at a situation from the other's perspective without necessarily condoning it or the response, lies at the root of much of the violence problem.

Shibley Telhami has written a piece on History and Humiliation, in The Washington Post, Friday, March 28, 2003, and has also written about humiliation in The Stakes: America and the Middle East.

Please see here the Style Guide of Social Alternatives with all the necessary information how contributions should be formatted.