Subhrangi Swain
UMass Junior
Anthropology/Biology Major
by Subhrangi Swain
UMass Public Anthropology Course | Anthro 397D
Spring 2014
We started the second day of Public Anthropology (397D) by discussing neo-liberalism and structural violence. Prof. Atalay asked us to do some research on these terms before class so we could discuss them. I had no idea what they meant and what I was to do with them. Upon reading the chapters in “Toward Engaged Anthropology” by Sam Beck and Carl Maida (2013), and the moving ideas presented by Dr. Ventura Perez, these words were no longer confusing but disheartening.
After doing much research I would define neoliberalism as the dominant economic system since the late 1970s, which stresses privatization and free market approaches to social problems. Conversely, as Adam Burtle put it, “structural violence refers to systematic ways in which social structures harm or otherwise disadvantage individuals. Structural violence is subtle, often invisible, and often has no one specific person who can be held responsible.” While these two terms seem complex there is visible intersection of the two. I found it useful to explore these intersections through readings from our Public Anthropology course, including the work that Dr. Perez has conducted with the Yaqui and Vincent Lyon-Callo’s work regarding inequalities on homelessness.
To start off I want to focus on the presentation that we had by Dr. Ventura Perez about his research with the Yaqui community (http://onlinedigeditions.com/display_article.php?id=1078675). He spoke with us about his inspiring work regarding the Yaqui peoples’ efforts of repatriation of ancestral remains that were once collected by Ales Hrdlicka from a massacre site. Hrdlicka had permission from both the US and Mexican government to go about and gather skulls of individuals that he thought were necessary for his research and bring them back to study. When Dr. Perez mentioned how Hrdlicka went about beheading the already dead people and then picking and choosing what he wanted to take back with him, I was thoroughly disgusted. How can someone have the audacity to go to a massacre site, and disrespect the innocent people that died just so the Mexican government can get their land? Just the thought of such an action is unfathomable. When I heard that statement, my initial reaction was, ‘well, back in those days it was not unusual, and it would never happen now.’ I was wrong.
The first image that manifests in people’s minds when they hear the word violence is blood, guns, dead bodies, and in general physically visible harm upon another person. What many people fail to see, which I came to recognize after reading Dr. Perez’s research and hearing his presentation, is that violence is not always visible. One such example of the intersection of neoliberalism and structural violence that is present in current society is homelessness.
I would like to shed light on Vincent Lyon-Callo’s (1990) ethnography, Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance, which does an exemplary job addressing the issues discussed above. In his book, Lyon-Callo sets out to examine how neoliberal policies shape the institutional response to homelessness in the U.S. and how this response, succeeds in shaping homeless people and shelter workers. The focus in this book is the way structural factors that create poverty become normalized and reinforced in everyday thought and action. The author bases his experience in the 1990s working as a shelter staff member, and argues that the hegemonic understanding of homelessness as the product of individual deviance “supplements” the conception of current socioeconomic arrangements as natural.
Homelessness is the perfect example of the intersection of neoliberalism and structural violence. This is because the transition to neoliberalism has involved both the dismantling of the social safety net and the development of hegemonic governing forms. This is done through blaming those without access to wealth, the medicalization of poverty, and the normalization of economic precarity. In this neoliberal model, everything boils down to individual action, and where the oppressive effects of capitalist markets are downplayed. Along this line of thinking, governments and service providers have viewed the growth in homelessness largely as a matter of individual problems and deviance rather than a matter of privilege, access to resources, wages and affordable housing. This connects well with the project that Larry Zimmerman is working on regarding the Archaeology of Homelessness (https://www.academia.edu/2048381/Activism_and_creating_a_translational_archaeology_of_homelessness).
I can now visualize how societal expectations have shaped people’s actions and my actions. The system of self-governance has caused people, including the homeless, to view qualities that were once perceived to be positive qualities, as negative qualities that need to be “fixed” because it is the cause of their homelessness. Homeless people often internalize the self-blaming model as they interact with it, by diagnosing themselves to be inadequate citizens who can’t make valuable contributions to society. This is unfortunate because the discourse of self-blame is pervasive and recreated throughout the entirety of dynamics around the shelter. It is not the fault of the individual for being homeless, it is the impact of societal factors that contributed to their homelessness (Lyon- Callo 1990:134).
While I am still disturbed by the actions of many in the past, and present, I am glad to say that I have been fortunate. I am surrounded by people who not only recognize that systemic oppression does not always take the form of direct violent action, but that it is important to be an active participant to educate ourselves, others, and to take actions to fix these ‘problems’ in our culture as a whole. One way of doing so is through engaged anthropology because it provides us with a solution as to how to go about and change the way things are run. I believe that studying and then acting on these issues matter because we all are capable human beings regardless of our status, and we have the right to pursue happiness and be respected. By acting on these issues we can establish various strong communities throughout the world and find a way to encourage acceptance.
Sources:
Lyon-Callo, Vincent,
1990 Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance:Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry. Peterborough, Ont.; Orchard Park, N.Y.: Broadview Press.
Adam Burtle,
2010-2013 Structural Violence, inequality and the harm it causes