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

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，助长了卢旺达社会的毁灭。 在布塔雷省，出现了两个卢旺达种族灭绝妇女幸存者网络，其中包括种族灭绝-强奸幸存者：Abasa（一个完全由自称为“种族灭绝-强奸幸存者”的种族灭绝妇女幸存者组成的网络）和AVEGA（一个更大的种族灭绝妇女幸存者网络，自称为“种族灭绝寡妇”，其中许多人也是种族灭绝-强奸幸存者）。 在经历创伤后，冲突后环境中重建身份和社会关系的文化过程尚未得到充分理解。 然而，有人认为，复原力是一个依赖于环境的过程，产生于基本的人类适应系统的运作，其特点是在受到破坏后重新融入社会。 凯斯西储大学医学人类学家的这篇论文研究了种族灭绝和战争相关强奸幸存者的复原力过程与冲突后环境中社会恢复的新兴文化模式有关的假设。 将利用网络中的受试者观察、访谈和关键线人跟踪来比较Abasa和AVEGA网络中妇女的复原过程。 本研究的预期结果将阐明身份如何塑造种族灭绝强奸的极端经验后的复原力的生物文化过程，并反过来揭示种族灭绝强奸幸存者之间的复原力模式的卢旺达社会冲突后的“重塑”。 除了有助于美国女研究生的培训和卢旺达研究生的研究培训，该研究项目的更广泛的影响将是告知未来的心理社会干预与受战争影响的人口。 这些干预措施可能会支持种族灭绝后卢旺达的卫生、社会和经济复苏努力，以及种族灭绝和/或战争相关强奸被用作（或已经被用作）武器的其他冲突后环境。

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.