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Tabula rasa Han settler colonialism and frontier genocide in “re-educated” Xinjiang

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jo Smith Finley

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Abstract

© 2022 The Society for Ethnographic Theory. All rights reserved. In his analysis of the frontier genocides waged against the Aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California, and the Herero of Namibia, Benjamin Madley (2004) identified three phases. The first is initiated by colonial invasion: economic and political frictions develop as settlers and indigenous peoples struggle for limited resources and power. In Phase Two, indigenous peoples attack settlers to reclaim lost resources and land, and this prompts a genocidal military campaign. In Phase Three, the settlers’ government incarcerates the indigenous peoples in concentration camps, where it continues genocide by attrition (through malnutrition, inadequate medical care, overwork, unsanitary conditions, and violence). All three genocides began with the assertion that the land was empty or should be made empty. Here, I consider how far the concept tabula rasa (“a map scraped clean”) applies to contemporary “re-educated” Xinjiang on China’s northwest frontier.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Smith Finley J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

Year: 2022

Volume: 12

Issue: 2

Pages: 341-356

Print publication date: 01/09/2022

Acceptance date: 02/04/2018

ISSN (print): 2575-1433

ISSN (electronic): 2049-1115

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/720902

DOI: 10.1086/720902

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