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

在1994年卢旺达种族灭绝期间，强奸被有系统地用作武器，直接影响到20多万妇女，并对卢旺达社会造成破坏。在布塔雷省，出现了两个卢旺达女性种族灭绝幸存者网络，其中包括种族灭绝强奸幸存者：Abasa(一个完全由女性种族灭绝幸存者组成的网络，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)。在经历创伤之后，在冲突后环境中重建身份和社会关系的文化进程尚未得到充分了解。然而，有人认为，复原力是由基本人类适应系统的运作产生的，其特点是重新融入以应对干扰。这篇论文由凯斯西储大学的一位医学人类学家进行的研究，检验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社会恢复的新兴文化模式有关的假设。将使用网络中的参与者观察、访谈和关键线人跟踪来比较ABASA和AVEGA网络中妇女的复原力过程。这项研究的预期结果将阐明在种族灭绝-强奸的极端经历之后，身份如何塑造复原力的生物文化进程，进而揭示种族灭绝-强奸幸存者的复原力如何塑造冲突后卢旺达社会的“重塑”。除了对一名美国女研究生的培训和一名卢旺达研究生的研究培训做出贡献外，该研究项目的更广泛影响将是为未来对受战争影响的人口进行心理社会干预提供信息。这种干预措施可能会支持种族灭绝后卢旺达的卫生、社会和经济恢复努力，以及正在(或已经)将与种族灭绝和/或战争有关的强奸作为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.