Dissertation Research: Resilience in Rwandan Women's Genocide Survivor Networks

论文研究：卢旺达妇女种族灭绝幸存者网络的复原力

• 批准号: 0514519
• 负责人: Janet McGrath
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Case Western Reserve University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2007-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0514519&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Resilience; Rwandan; Women

Rape was used systematically as a weapon during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, directly affecting upwards of 200,000 women and contributing to the destruction of Rwandan society. In the province of Butare, two networks of Rwandan women genocide survivors have emerged who include genocide-rape survivors among their members: Abasa (a network composed entirely of women genocide survivors who identify as "genocide-rape survivors") and AVEGA (a larger network of women genocide survivors who identify as "genocide widows", many of whom are also genocide-rape survivors). The cultural processes through which identities and social relationships are reconstructed in post-conflict settings after traumatic experience are not fully understood. However, it has been suggested that resilience is a context dependent process arising from the operation of basic human adaptation systems characterized by reintegration in response to disruption. This dissertation research by a medical anthropologist from Case Western Reserve University examines the hypothesis that the process of resilience among survivors of genocide- and war-related rape relates to emerging cultural patterns of social recovery in post-conflict settings. Participant-observation in the networks, interviewing, and key informant shadowing will be used to compare the process of resilience among the women in the Abasa and AVEGA networks. The expected results of this research will elucidate how identity shapes the biocultural process of resilience after the extreme experience of genocide-rape, and in turn reveal how resilience among genocide-rape survivors patterns the "remaking" of Rwandan society post-conflict. In addition to contributing to the training of a female U.S. graduate student and to the research training of a Rwandan graduate student, the broader impacts of the research project will be to inform future psychosocial interventions with war-affected populations. Such interventions could potentially support health, social, and economic recovery efforts in post-genocide Rwanda, as well as other post-conflict settings where genocide- and/or war-related rape is being (or has been) used as a weapon.

在1994年卢旺达种族灭绝期间，强奸被系统地用作一种武器，直接影响到20多万妇女，并助长了卢旺达社会的破坏。在布塔雷省，出现了两个卢旺达种族灭绝妇女幸存者网络，其成员中包括种族灭绝强奸幸存者：Abasa（一个完全由种族灭绝妇女幸存者组成的网络，她们认为自己是“种族灭绝强奸幸存者”）和AVEGA（一个更大的种族灭绝妇女幸存者网络，她们认为自己是“种族灭绝寡妇”，其中许多人也是种族灭绝强奸幸存者）。在创伤经历后的冲突后环境中，身份和社会关系重建的文化过程尚未得到充分理解。然而，有研究表明，复原力是一个依赖于环境的过程，产生于人类基本适应系统的运作，其特征是对破坏的重新整合。凯斯西储大学（Case Western Reserve University）医学人类学家的这篇论文研究了这样一个假设，即种族灭绝和战争强奸幸存者的恢复过程与冲突后社会恢复的新兴文化模式有关。网络中的参与者观察、访谈和关键线人跟踪将用于比较Abasa和AVEGA网络中妇女的复原力过程。本研究的预期结果将阐明身份如何塑造种族灭绝-强奸极端经历后恢复力的生物文化过程，并反过来揭示种族灭绝-强奸幸存者的恢复力如何影响冲突后卢旺达社会的“重塑”。除了有助于培训一名美国女研究生和一名卢旺达研究生的研究培训外，该研究项目的更广泛影响将是为未来对受战争影响的人群进行心理社会干预提供信息。这些干预措施有可能支持卢旺达种族灭绝后的卫生、社会和经济恢复工作，以及其他冲突后环境中种族灭绝和/或与战争有关的强奸正在（或已经）被用作武器的情况。