Expanding the Sociology of Genocide in Asia

As has become apparent in recent studies, the rubric of Western post-Enlightenment rationality, the support of scientific theories in order to legitimate racism, and the “illegitimate” role of religion are not adequate to explain genocidal acts in Asia. In addition to splits between legal scholars and social scientists about the breadth of the definition of genocide, acts of mass killing in Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries seem to spring from more than simply reactions to colonialism, imperialist mimesis, or the demands of building the post-colonial nation-state. This paper will examine the history and sociological conditions for genocide in Asia. Reviewing case studies from Cambodia, East Timor, Nanjing, Taiwan, and Tibet, this paper will attempt a more synthetic examination of causes beyond ethnic and political considerations and incorporate post-colonialism—particularly in Cambodia, language changes and conflict, and kinship issues.