Violence as Usual : Policing and the Colonial State in German Southwest Africa / Marie Muschalek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Muschalek, Marie A., 1978- Author.

Series:

Cornell scholarship online.

Cornell scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German Southwest Africa. Landespolizei--History.

German Southwest Africa.

Police--Namibia--History--20th century.

Police.

Violence--Namibia--History--20th century.

Violence.

Germans--Namibia--History--20th century.

Germans.

Namibia--History--1884-1915.

Namibia.

Namibia--Colonization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (270 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Slaps in the face, kicks, beatings, and other forms of run-of-the-mill violence were a "idian part of life in German Southwest Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. Unearthing this culture of normalized violence in a settler colony, Violence as Usual uncovers the workings of a powerful state that was built in an improvised fashion by low-level state representatives.Marie A. Muschalek's fascinating portrayal of the daily deeds of African and German men enrolled in the colonial police force called the Landespolizei is a historical anthropology of police practice and the normalization of imperial power. Replete with anecdotes of everyday experiences both of the policemen and of colonized people and settlers, Violence as Usual reexamines fundamental questions about the relationship between power and violence. Muschalek gives us a new perspective on violence beyond the solely destructive and the instrumental. She overcomes, too, the notion that modern states operate exclusively according to modes of rationalized functionality. Violence as Usual offers an unusual assessment of the history of rule in settler colonialism and an alternative to dominant narratives of an ostensibly weak colonial state.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Everyday Violence and the Colonial State

1. Honor, Status, Masculinity: Violent Identity Formations

2. Soldier-Bureaucrats: The Primacy of Proper Bearing

3. Of Whips, Shackles, and Guns: Tools and Technologies of Policing

4. Police Work: Daily Routines and the Art of Making Do

5. Policing Work: Violent Regulation of the Labor Market

Conclusion: Histories of Colonial Violence

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781501742866

1501742868

OCLC:

1089873656