Somasundaram and Gunaratna in Why We Kill

Noticed below is the f lyer for the Routledge book Why We Kill:  Understanding Violence across Cultures and Disciplines, Edited by Nancy Loucks, Sally Smith Holt and Joanna R. Adler

 “Editors Loucks, Holt, and Adler have assembled nine outstanding essays from scholars who take pains to elucidate the role that gender, culture, and context play in framing the meaning of the killing act….The essays are consistently informed and insightful, and the editors have succeeded in exploring the “contextual, multilayered and complex manifestations” of killing in this timely volume that will be useful to scholars and accessible to general readers.” Summing Up: Highly recommended.” says   L. Steffen,Lehigh Universityin Choice, July 2010

 Infanticide, serial killings, war, terrorism, abortion, honour killings, euthanasia, suicide bombings and genocide; all involve taking of life. Put most simply, all involve killing one or more other people. Yet cultural context influences heavily how one perceives all of these, and indeed, some readers of this paragraph may already have thought: “But surely that doesn’t belong with those others, that’s not reallykilling.”  Why We Kill examines violence in many of its manifestations, exploring how culture plays a role in people’s understanding of violent action. From the first chapter, which considers multiple forms of domestic homicide including infanticide, filicide, spousal homicide and honour killings, to the final chapter’s bone‐chilling account of the massacre at Murambi inRwanda, this fascinating book makes compelling reading.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Religion, Culture and Killing  by Sally Smith Holt, Nancy Loucks and Joanna R. Adler

1. ‘You always hurt the one you love’: Homicide in a Domestic Context by Maria Kaspersson

2. Serial Killing by Keith Soothill

3. Capital Punishment: Creating More Victims? by Peter Hodgkinson, Seema Kandelia and Rupa Reddy

4.  Abortion: Understanding the Moral Issues by Lawrence M. Hinman

5. Euthanasia: An Introduction to the Moral Issues by Lawrence M. Hinman

6. Suicide by Kay Nooney

7. Terrorism: A Unique Form of Political Violence by Rohan Gunaratna

8. Collective Violence and War by Daya Somasundaram

9. Massacre at Murambi: The Rank and File Killers of Genocide by Stephen Smith

Epilogue: Why we Kill by  Nancy Loucks, Sally Smith Holt and Joanna R. Adler

 December 2009 | Paperback: 978‐1‐904750‐42‐0 | £20.99 £16.79 To place your order, or to request a complimentary exam copy today, visit www.routledge.com/9781904750420.

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