Role of Memory in Ethnic Conflict, The

Cairns, Ed and Micheal D. Roe (eds.), The Role of Memory in Ethnic Conflict. New York, NY: Palgrave McMillan, 2003. 201 pp.

This volume was the outcome of a joint project on memories in conflict that was put together following a 1995 conference of psychologists aimed at looking into peace and conflict issues under the patronage of the International Union of Psychological Science, and the Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity, of the United Nations University and the University of Ulster (p. 171).

The superstructure of the volume rests on the following analytic pillars: (1) content of social memories and their origin, maintenance, and transmission; (2) roles of social identities; (3) social status of victim; (4) social status of perpetrator; and (5) conflict resolution (p. 172) and how their application in a society could further or assuage ethnic conflict.

The work is made up of five parts and ten chapters. In Chapter 1 titled, "Why Memories in Conflict?" Ed Cairns and Micheal D. Roe provide the background within which the text was assembled and general summary of the succeeding chapters. Most importantly, they remind the reader of the issue of ethnic conflict in virtually every poly-ethnic state by citing an excerpt from one of the pioneering works of Donald Horowitz: "The importance of ethnic conflict, as a force shaping human affairs, as a phenomenon to be understood, as a threat to be controlled, can no longer be denied" (p. 3). In a way, the elements of this extract inform the overarching analyses in the book.

That the study of the issue of memory and conflict transcends or better yet is tackled across disciplines-sociology, (social) psychology, anthropology, history and political science and so on-was not lost in Patrick Devine-Wright's analysis in Chapter 2, "A Theoretical Overview of Memory and Conflict." He reviews the literature and suggests that social memory and its various (disciplinary) appurtenances-collective memories and commemoration, myth, invented tradition, social cognition and social identity-are fluid and play different significant roles in ethnic identity and the manner in which an ethnic group views other competing ethnic groups in a society. For instance, in a conflictive society such as Rwanda, the ability of either [the Tutsis or the Hutus] to forget or remember the ethnic conflict of the past is demonstrated in the links between memory and ethnic conflict that sometimes operate at the personal or collective levels (p. 33).

In Chapter 3, "Reconciliation between Black and White Australians," David Mellor and Di Bretherton investigate the relationship between social memory and reconciliation by using Black and White Australians as a case study. In brief, they point out the problem of reconciling these two groups based on memories. This was, and is, so when the social memory of an oppressed group is fundamentally different from that of the dominant group in the polity, such as in the case where White Australians do not recall the government's policy of "forcibly-kidnapping aboriginal children to 'civilize' them" (pp. 46-48). By way of comparison, such a political~and some might say-thelogical-attempt of the dominant White Australians approximates the French colonial policy of mission civilisatrice, which manifested itself in the superiority complex of the colonizer over the colonized in Africa and elsewhere. In the end, they contend that reconciliation between Black and White Australians is regressing to some extent because of the psychological distance of the White population issuing from past atrocities it committed against the Aboriginal population. It goes without saying that the impact of past problematic policies toward Blacks are equally launched in the social memories of the Aboriginal-creating, as it were, social and political antinomies in the society that have become obstacles to reconciliation (pp. 47-48, 53).

In Chapter 4, "Cowlitz Indian Ethic Identity, Social Memories and 150 Years of Conflict with the United States Government," Micheal D. Roe brings into sharp focus how the Cowlitz used social memory that tends to be located in cultural and political space and time-as a device for retaining their ethno-cultural identity in the face of immense pressure on them to peel off their "tribal" identity (pp. 57-68, 173). Indeed, the Cowlitz Indians in the Pacific Northwest, one of a few Native American collectivities that did not sign a treaty with the United States, was used to illustrate the extent to which the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agent of the national government, attempted to wipe out their cultural existence through legislation. In spite of government's attempts and after 150 years of conflict with the federal government, the group neither gave up their "tribal" identity nor their local authority (p. 63). In an attempt to explicate why the Cowlitz retained their ethnic identity while other similar groups opted for assimilation into the dominant population and culture, Roe conducted three separate studies over a five year period of the Cowlitz. He observed that a certain level of social memory identifying the individual Cowlitz natives as a unique people was continuously reinforced in the psyche of succeeding generations through oral traditions [as in African traditional societies], socialization and emotion-laden events. These events are generally propagated by the elders of the group (pp. 65-68). He postulates that although the Cowlitz may not have attained a large geographical and political space in the struggle with the state, their social and psychological memory has continued to further their unique and incandescent cultural values (p. 72).