THE EL MOZOTE MASSACRE: ANTHROPOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
This essay on The El Mozote Massacre: Anthropology and Human Rights is based on the following questions, however, you should also incorporate key ideas and background information provided throug h class discussions and audio-visual materials. Your paper should be thoughtful and analytical (rather than a "book report"), but also founded on informed knowledge. Your responses should reflect an understanding of the entire book, rather than selectiv e reading of specific parts. This paper should be 7 pages in length; please word process your paper using letter quality print (print the entire paper in bold if your printer does not print clearly), and number your responses. The paper, worth 50 points; no late papers will be accepted.
1. • A former U.S. Ambassador reported to Congress in 1977 that the U.S. had no vital interests in El Salvador (it has no oil, strategic minerals, or resources that the U.S. cannot obtain elsewhere). Yet Reagan made support of the S alvadoran military a central part of his foreign policy, declaring that El Salvador was a textbook case of U.S. ability to withstand Soviet aggression.
• Binford, on the other hand, argues that the collaboration of the Salvadoran military and oligarchy, together with U.S. military and economic support, sustained the capitalist economy; furthermore, Binford suggests, the U.S. role i n El Salvador's civil war coincides with the expansion of capitalism.
Evaluate these political and economic ends as explanations for the U.S. role in El Salvador (you may argue for one position or the other, or a combination of the two), providing the historical context for factors that culminated in the El Mozote massacre. Then critique the lessons to be learned from El Salvador's civil war, including in your discussion the massacre itself, the coverup, the low intensity conflict policy, and efforts to pursue justice. (30 points)
2. Thoughtfully evaluate Binford's approach of an alternative anthropology (note that this approach is utilized throughout the book). What does such an approach imply in terms of journalistic reporting, official government reports, and other types of documentation of the massacre? Assess the latter approaches with what Binford refers to as the "violence of everyday life." (20 points)