The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

the rwandan genocide of 1994 147
Pathological states are characterized by obstructed or excessive flows, and perturbations
of this sort may signify illness, diminished fertility, or death.
Fluid metaphors suffuse Rwandan popular medical practices, yet healers and
their patients do not explicitly verbalize them in any local mode of exegesis. The
model that I hypothesize for Rwandan popular medicine thus does not appear to
be a fully conscious one. This is in sharp contrast to similar “image schemata”
( Johnson 1987) found elsewhere in the world. For example, in some forms of Indian
popular medicine, healers explicitly talk of illness in terms of interrupted flows
of kundalini (Kakar 1982). Similarly, in many forms of Chinese popular medicine,
concern is expressed about the flow of Qi through the body; therapeutic measures
are taken to direct or unblock Qi flow (Farquhar 1994). Despite an apparently less
than conscious quality in Rwanda, flow/blockage metaphors are imaged and enacted
in a diverse array of domains. Although they may be most commonly encountered
in popular healing, my research has revealed that similar representations
are also present in myths, legends, and the rituals of sacred kingship, and that they
involve potencies of various types (Taylor 1988).
Because of the implicit quality of this symbolism, it is not possible to ascertain
the degree to which Rwandans from various regions and of differing ethnicity, gender,
or class have internalized it. Although it may be possible in some instances to verify
how many people have knowledge of a specific healing procedure or belief, it is
impossible to affirm whether that specific knowledge, or lack of it, implies adherence
to an associated mode of thought. This means that at a second level of understanding,
attention needs to be shifted away from the study of the formal properties
of the symbolism, to its various enactments in social life.
POPULAR MEDICINE
During my fieldwork in Rwanda in the 1980s, I found that illnesses were often characterized
by perceived irregularities in fluid flows, and that these tended to have an
alimentary or reproductive symptomatic focus. Concern with ordered flows and
their proper embodiment was not just implicated in illness, however; it was also implicated
in health. From the very moment that a human being enters this world,
these metaphors figure prominently in the cultural construction of the person. Practices
associated with childbirth, for example, focus upon certain portions of the
child’s anatomy. Rural Rwandans that I interviewed in both northern and southern
Rwanda during the 1980s recounted versions of the following practices.
After giving birth a new mother is secluded for a period of eight days (today this
period is often shorter). On the ninth day, the newborn child is presented to other
members of the family and local community for the first time (gusohora umwana).
This rite of passage can be performed only after the baby’s body has been examined
and found to be free of anal malformations. People at this occasion receive a
meal, especially the children present, who are given favorite foods. These children