Dark trophies : hunting and the enemy body in modern war / Simon Harrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harrison, Simon, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military trophies--History.

Military trophies.

Military history, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Berghahn Books, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Many anthropological accounts of warfare in indigenous societies have described the taking of heads or other body parts as trophies. But almost nothing is known of the prevalence of trophy-taking of this sort in the armed forces of contemporary nation-states. This book is a history of this type of misconduct among military personnel over the past two centuries, exploring its close connections with colonialism, scientific collecting and concepts of race, and how it is a model for violent power relationships between groups.

Contents:

Introduction: dark trophies of enlightened war

Schemas and metaphors

Hunting and war: the European history of a metaphor

Bodies and class in the Age of Revolution

The European enlightenment and the origins of scalping

Skulls and science

The collecting expedition as a magical quest

Skulls and scientific collecting in the Victorian military

From hero to specimen: phrenology, craniology and the Indian skull

Ethnology, race and trophy-hunting in the American Civil War

Museums and lynchings: bodies and the exhibition of order

Savages on the frontiers of Europe

Skull trophies of the Pacific War

Transgressive objects of remembrance

The colonial manhunt and the body parts of bandits: hunting schemas in British counter-insurgency

Kinship and the enemy body in the Vietnam War

Returning memories

Conclusion.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613814821

9781282254176

1282254170

9780857454997

0857454994

OCLC:

804662533