Dehumanization

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Dehumanization (or dehumanisation) describes efforts to mitigate one's sense of humanity (in its most idealized form), or efforts to undermine one's access to basic human rights (e.g., physical autonomy, food, water, opportunities for self-sufficiency). It is often accomplished by treating one like a non-human animal and can occur discursively (e.g., idiomatic language that likens certain human beings to non-human animals, verbal abuse, erasing one's voice from discourse), symbolically (e.g., imagery), or physically (e.g., chattel slavery, physical abuse, refusing eye contact). Dehumanization also takes the form of undermining one's individuality (i.e., the creative and interesting aspects of his or her personality), or preventing one from showing compassion towards others (a characteristic often linked to a sense of humanity).^{[citation needed]} Dehumanization may be carried out by a social institution (such as a state, school, or family) or via an individual's sentiments and actions. Dehumanization can be unintentional, especially on the part of individuals, as with some types of de facto racism. State-organized dehumanization has historically been directed against perceived racial, ethnic, national, or religious Others. Other minoritized and marginalized individuals and groups (based on sexuality, gender, (dis)ability, class, or some other organizing principle) are also susceptible to various forms of dehumanization.

The concept of dehumanization has received empirical attention in the psychological literature (Deci & Moller, 2010; Haslam et al., 2008). See: Psychwiki

Nations and governments

A U.S. government poster from World War II depicting a Japanese soldier as a rat.

Sociologists and historians often view dehumanization as central to some or all types of wars. Governments sometimes present "enemy" civilians or soldiers as less than human so that voters will be more likely to support a war they may otherwise consider mass murder. Dictatorships use the same process to prevent opposition by citizens. Such efforts often depend on preexisting racist, sectarian or otherwise biased beliefs, which governments play upon through various types of media, presenting "enemies" as barbaric, undeserving of rights, and a threat to the nation. Alternatively, states sometimes present the enemy government or way of life as barbaric and its citizens as childlike and incapable of managing their own affairs. Such arguments have been used as a pretext for colonialism.

The Holocaust during World War II and the Rwandan Genocide have both been cited as atrocities predicated upon government-organized campaigns of dehumanization, while crimes like lynching (especially in the United States) are often thought of as the result of popular bigotry and government apathy. The main cause behind the American mutilation of Japanese war dead has been stated to be dehumanization.

Anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson famously wrote that dehumanization might well be considered "the fifth horseman of the apocalypse" because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they become dispensable - and any atrocity can be justified.

Dehumanization can be seen outside of overtly violent conflicts, as in political debates where opponents are presented as collectively stupid or inherently evil. Such "good-versus-evil" claims help end substantive debate (see also thought-terminating cliché).

Other topics

The empirically-supported propaganda model of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky shows^[1] how corporate media are able to carry out large-scale, successful dehumanization campaigns when that promotes the goals (profit-making) that the corporations are contractually obliged to maximise.^[2] State media, in either democracies or dictatorships, are also capable of carrying out dehumanization campaigns,^[3] to the extent with which the population is unable to counteract the dehumanizing memes.^{[citation needed]}

The dissections of human cadavers, was seen as dehumanizing in the Dark Ages (see Medieval anatomy), but now the importance of dissections as a training aid is more widely accepted.

See also

Notes

References

Moller, A. C., & Deci, E. L. (2010). Interpersonal control, dehumanization, and violence: A self-determination theory perspective. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 13, 41-53.

Haslam, N., Kashima, Y., Loughnan, S., Shi, J., & Suitner, C. (2008). Subhuman, inhuman, and superhuman: Contrasting humans with nonhumans in three cultures. Social Cognition, 26(2), 248-258. doi:10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.248.

Sources

Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh