Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Treading on a Minefield: Anthropology and the Debate on Honor Killings in Sweden

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Engaged Anthropology

Part of the book series: Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference ((ATSIAD))

  • 770 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter deals with the challenges its author faced in taking part in the highly politicized and morally charged public debates on honor killings in the Swedish press. Among these are avoiding undue over-simplifications while at the same time writing intelligibly and compellingly for a readership of lay persons. Furthermore, given the contentiousness in the Swedish context of issues such as immigration, gender and cultural difference and a narrowing “corridor of opinions”, anything published in a public debate may, and probably will, be charged politically in ways never intended by its author. In spite of these and other challenges, the author argues that it is worthwhile, even necessary, for anthropologists to occasionally initiate and take part in debates such as this one.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. Theory, Culture and Society. .http://fido.rockymedia.net/anthro/Appaduraieconomy.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Baksi, Kurdo. 2002. Fadime mördades för att hon var kvinna (Fadime was Killed Because She was a Woman). Dagens Nyheter, March 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zymunt, and Leonidas Donskis. 2013. Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calderone, Michael. 2013. Wall Street Journal Reporters Urged to Write More Short Articles, ‘Fun Brites’. Huffington Post, July 2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-calderone/wall-street-journal-short-articles-fun-brites_b_2630283.html

  • Carr, Nicholas. 2011. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornell, Stephen. 1996. The Variable Ties that Bind: Content and Circumstance in Ethnic Processes. Ethnic and Racial Studies 19(2): 265–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demirbag-Sten, Dilsa. 2002. Inlägg/hedersmord (Opinion/Honor Killings). Dagens Nyheter, March 18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demoskop. 2015. http://www.demoskop.se/aktuellt/nyhet/valjarbarometern-for-juli-ny-toppnotering-for-sverigedemokraterna/7%20July.

  • Ekström, Simon. 2006. Fadime Sahindal och misstankens hermeneutic: debatt, fenomen, projection (Fadime Sahindal and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion). In Orienten i Sverige: samtida möten och gränssnitt (The Orient in Sweden: Contemporary Meetings and Interfaces), eds. Simon Ekström and Lena Gerholm. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. Hedersmorden och orden: Berättelser om kultur, kritik och skillnad (The Honor Killings and the Words: Tales About Culture, Critique and Difference). Stockholm & Göteborg: Makadam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldén, Åsa. 2003. Heder på liv och död: Våldsamma berättelser om rykten, oskuld och heder (Honor of Life and Death: Violent Tales About Rumours, Virginity and Difference). Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2001. Tyranny of the Moment: Fast and Slow Time in the Information Age. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. Nothing to Lose But our Aitches. Anthropology Today 21: 2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1976. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grønhaug, Reidar. 1997. Rettsstaten, det flerkulturelle og antropologien. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift 8(3–4): 256–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guillou, Jan. 2002. Kulturell måttstock gynnar rasistparti (Cultural Standards Further the Interests of Racist Party). Aftonbladet, March 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, Byung-Chul. 2013. Trötthetssamhället (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft). Stockholm: Ersatz.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. I svärmen: tankar om det digitala (Im Schwarm. Ansichten des Digitalen). Stockholm: Ersatz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hannerz, Ulf. 1993. When Culture is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept. Ethnos 58(1/2): 95–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hjärpe, Jan. 1997. Kan kultur och religion orsaka mord? (Can Culture and Religion Cause Murders?) Göteborgsposten, February 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jalving, Mikael. 2011. Absolut Sverige. En rejse i tavshedens rike (Absolute Sweden: A Travel Through the Land of Silence). Copenhagen: Jyllands-Postens Forlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, Richard. 2008. Rethinking Ethnicity. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knausgård, Karl Ove. 2015. Cyklopernas Land (The Land of the Cyclops). Dagens Nyheter, May 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurkiala, Mikael. 2002a. Den stora skräcken för skillnader (The Great Fear of Differences). Dagens Nyheter, March 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002b. Konsekvensfobi (Consequence Phobia). Dagens Nyheter, March 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. I varje trumslag jordens puls: om vår tids rädsla för skillnader (In Every Drumbeat, the Pulse of the Earth: On the Fear of Differences in Our Time). Stockholm: Ordfront.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. De ska hyllas för sin frihetskamp (They are to be Honored for Their Struggle for Freedom). Upsala Nya Tidning, April 20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsson, Stieg, and Cecilia Englund, eds. 2004. Debatten om hedersmord: Feminism eller rasism (The Debate About Honor Killings: Feminism or Racism). Stockholm: Svartvitts förlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lönnaeus, Olle. 2002. Fadime borde ha tänkt på sin kultur (‘Fadime Should have Thought About her Culture’). Sydsvenskan, January 25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, Johan. 2001. Samförstånd som statsreligion (Consensus as State Religion). Axess 2011(4): 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, GeorgeE., and Michael J. Fischer. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthis, Moa. 2002. Patriarkatet styr Sverige (‘The Patriarchy Rules Sweden’). Dagens Nyheter, March 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Microsoft. 2015. Attention Spans. .http://fp.advertising.microsoft.com/en/WWDocs/User/display/cl/researchreport/31966/en/microsoft-attention-spans-research-report.pdf

  • NCK (National Centre for Women’s Integrity). 2014. http://www.nck.uu.se/Kunskapscentrum/Kunskapsbanken/amnen/Hedersrelaterat_vald_och_fortryck/Hedersrelaterat_vald_och_fortryck__Kunskapsbankens_amnesguide_/

  • Okumus, Esref. 2002. Inte bara en kurdisk kultur (‘Not only one Kurdish culture’). Expressen, March 13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pekgul, Nalin. 2002. Mammorna har ett stort ansvar (‘The Mothers have a Great Responsibility’). Expressen, March 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Week. 2012. The Rise and Fall of the Kony 2012 Campaign: A Timeline. http://theweek.com/articles/476909/rise-fall-kony-2012-campaign-timeline

  • Oleskog Tryggvason, Per and Henrik Oscarsson. 2014. Utvecklingen av partisympatier 2001–2013: Sverigedemokraterna (‘The Development of Party Sympathies 2001–2013: The Sweden Democrats’), University of Gothenburg: Valforskningsprogrammet, Rapport, 06, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turkle, Sherry. 2011. Alone Together: Why we Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Twana, Tara. 2002. Välj sida—nu! (‘Choose sides—now!’). Expressen, January 28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upsala Nya Tidning. 2010. Kurdisk protest mot namnförslag (Kurdish protest against proposed name). March 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikan, Unni. 1991. Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004a. En fråga om heder. Stockholm: Ordfront. (In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame, University of Chicago Press, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004b. Citizenship on Trial: Nadia’s Case. In Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies, eds. Rrichard.A. Shweder, Martha Minow, and Hazel Rose Markus. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit, The Church of Sweden, Uppsala, Sweden

    Mikael Kurkiala

Authors
  1. Mikael Kurkiala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Tone Bringa

  2. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Synnøve Bendixsen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kurkiala, M. (2016). Treading on a Minefield: Anthropology and the Debate on Honor Killings in Sweden. In: Bringa, T., Bendixsen, S. (eds) Engaged Anthropology. Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40484-4_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40484-4_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40483-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40484-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation