Framing violence as cultural property forecloses understanding of how group peril shapes it.

Evidence

Once the violence becomes a property of immigrant culture, it cannot easily be uncoupled from debates about how to control foreigners. Most of all, when a practice is condemned so unequivocally as originating in culture, there is little space left to explore how arranged and forced marriages may be understood both as an internal community practice and as a practice profoundly affected by a community’s sense of peril. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 302

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘civilizing mission’ framing in other chapters of this book and to general postcolonial critiques of culturalist explanations of violence. — connects to: Violent extremism signals cultural collapse, not traditional cultural resurgence — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 65; Cultural violence arises from superiority beliefs fused with underlying group vulnerability — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 96; Cultural superiority paired with felt weakness predisposes groups to violence against others. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 96